2017-10-27 05:29:43

Hi.
As developers may already know, there are lots of approaches for making iOS native applications such as Visual studio + Xamarin, Swift, Objective C, with Xcode as a prerequisite. Although it is also possible to develop browser or custom interpreter based applications using Electron, Python or other cross-platform scripting languages, I'm not talking about them at the moment.
What is the most accessible environment to develop iOS native apps for completely-blind coders? It should be able to call iOS API's directly since we do have to deal with voiceover labeling or push notification controls in the future.
I do understand that I first have to buy a mac computer of course, but I still haven't. So I don't know much about Xcode accessibility and how much it is easy or difficult to write codes on mac.
I can write C/C++ pretty well and know that xcode can somehow generate arm64 machine language out of it, but I don't get much information about using it on iOS for some reason. My knowledge is a kinda scattered at the moment. Please tell me how are you coding iOS applications if there's anyone who does it here.

I don't speak as good as I write, and I don't listen as good as I speak.

2017-10-27 07:32:47

Might want to check out RemObjects Elements. You can write apps for Android, Windows, Mac/iOS and Java, in either C#, Swift, Java or Oxygene.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
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2017-10-28 01:11:06

Since java was mentioned, how is it as far as accessibility? I will be taking a programming class next semester and we will be doing java as far as i'm aware. Rather than create a new topic on this, how is it for cross platforming?
At the first poster sorry forget your name, keep in mind that if you want to develop for ios, its like 60 bucks a year to be in the appstore, also from what i know about apple there pretty, well, communist i should say in terms of their policies, I don't imagine their appstore requirements are too lite either, as its up to them whether your app gets out there or not.

I am the blind jedi, I use the force to see. I am the only blind jedi.

2017-10-28 03:59:26

@3, Java's accessibility is very good. You've gotta do some fiddling around to get it to work, but the basic steps are something like:
Download the 32-bit and 64-bit JDKs, install them, run jabswitch on both of them with the -enable argument and restart your screen reader. Not sure how you do it on other platforms. It's cross-platform-ness is very good.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2017-10-28 05:52:55

If you have to use a Java IDE for class, Eclipse is the most accessible one that I've found.

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

2017-10-29 03:14:04

@2
Thanks. Have you actually tried using this? Just curious.
@3
I know about the apple developers payment. It will absolutely be sad if Apple will reject the completed app unreasonabley, just like when it happened for Audio Game Hub.

I don't speak as good as I write, and I don't listen as good as I speak.

2017-10-29 03:17:23

@6, indeed I have. It integrates directly with visual studio, and can be quite costly, but it's well, well worth it.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2017-10-29 03:52:06

Wait, apple pulled audiogame hub? What the hell?

I am the blind jedi, I use the force to see. I am the only blind jedi.

2017-10-29 09:47:34 (edited by nyanchan 2017-10-29 09:48:24)

They didn't. They refused it several times before the release of V2.0. Sonar seems to have repeatedly requested re-judgments and finally had Apple accept as far as I know.

I don't speak as good as I write, and I don't listen as good as I speak.

2017-10-29 19:10:56

I recommend just using XCode. It's as close to the best thing you're going to find and doesn't have any extra layers you can jump through. Swift isn't hard to learn and XCode has accessibility issues but they're able to be worked around.
Regarding java: you only need one JDK, not really two. Having both can become messy, so only do that if you have a purpose. Eclipse is the best solution I have found as well; I was working on a multi million line codebase last summer and that was what I used. The best part about it is it will let you jump into function definitions etc, so tracing large amounts of code becomes much easier. Just take the time to learn the hotkeys.

HTH,

2017-10-30 01:41:19

That may be the easiest way if Swift will fit my preference. How do you usually edit the program? Do you use an accessible text editor on Mac? I thought Emacs on Mac wasn't accessible at all and textEdit didn't seem to be appropriate for coding when I tried at University.

I don't speak as good as I write, and I don't listen as good as I speak.

2017-10-30 02:02:25

@sorressean, the only reason I recommended two JDKs is because you can't get 64-bit JDK accessibility without having both the 32-bit and 64-bit JDKs installed and both jabswitch's enabled. It can get messy -- I'll agree with you on that one. And I've encountered a bug in one of the JDK installers that causes NVDA to freeze during the Java installation. But other than that, two JDKs works fine for me at least.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2017-11-10 00:12:17

It is mentioned that java apps can bee made accessible. is there a step by step guide on how to do this?

I have a java app that I would like to use but NVDA/VoiceOver can't see anything in the window. can this be made to work?

I don’t believe in fighting unnecessarily.  But if something is worth fighting for, then its always a fight worth winning.
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2017-11-10 07:49:34

@Kyleman123, you've enabled the java access bridges, right? Both of them that is? I have no idea how you'd get voice over to work with Java apps...

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2017-11-10 23:40:02

How does jaws work? That's what I use, and I'm not gonna use NVDA.

I am the blind jedi, I use the force to see. I am the only blind jedi.