============================================================ 3. Further operating systems (APPLE, UNIX, Windows 95, OS/2) ============================================================ 3.1. APPLE-MACINTOSH ==================== Computers of the Apple-Macintosh type are not PC-compatible, but form a class completely of their own with an own operating system and specific applications programs. The fundamental differences result from the fact that the Macintosh employs a different microprocessor (the principal item of each computer) than a PC does. The screen of the Apple-Macintosh (called "Mac" in the following text) looks quite similar to the one in Windows (under MS-DOS). But the Mac makes sound reproduction and type enlargement easier. There are relatively low-priced program that help you make a real text reading system out of your Mac. In detail, there are the following low-priced Mac programs for low vision users: "CloseView": Type enhancement system, included in the Mac-price "inLARGE 2.0": Another type enhancement system, costs only about DM 250 "outSPOKEN": Speech output for the Mac, costs only about DM 750 "Omnipage-Direct": OCR software for text recognition (scanner), costs approx. DM 500 Internal tip: A description of the type enhancement systems "CloseView" and "inLARGE" should be added. 3.2. UNIX / X-Windows ===================== This chapter contains examples of low vision user-friendly configurations of the graphic user interface X-Windows of the operating system UNIX. Appreciations to Dr. Dieter Schll who collected these ideas for us. There are several variants of the operating system UNIX on the market. The standard graphic working interface of UNIX is X-Windows. X-Windows on its part can be seen as a "superimposed concept" fof diverse program managers. Explained in MS-DOS-terms: UNIX corresponds to MS-DOS, X-Windows corresponds to an interface like Win3.11 which is available in different forms (Motif, fwm, owm, twm). The setting of these different systems are not standardized, and we can't go into all the variants and details here. It is absolutely possible that some suggestions are not practicable on certain systems. Basically you can carry out X-Windows settings on three levels: 3.2.1 for single programs with each call-up 3.2.2 for several programs together and permanent (file ".Xdefaults") 3.2.3 general settings of the windows 3.2.1 Settings with program call-up ----------------------------------- You can modify the appearance of most of the programs by simple options, e.g. the programs "xterm", "emacs", "Xclock",... a) colours Options for colour changes: foreground colour (-fg colour) background colour (-bg colour) cursor colour (-cr colour) mouse pointer (-ms colour) highlight cursor (-ah) Reverse Video (-rv) As colours you usually can give all colours in English. For example, call up "xterm" with "xterm -bg black -fg white -cr green&". b) font size You can alter the font with the option "-fn font". We suggest the following fonts: -misc-fixed-bold-*-*-*-20-*-*-*-*-*-*-* -adobe-courier-medium-*-*-*-20-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Also fonts with proportional type such as Helvetica are suitable that actually offer better visibility; but here representation errors can occur (line wrappings, ...). Example: -adobe-helvetica-bold-r-*-*-20-*-*-*-*-*-*-* The call-up of the program "emacs" e.g. could look like this: emacs -fn -adobe-courier-bold-*-*-*-20-*-*-*-*-*-*-*& The n"umber "20" indicates the font size and can be varied as you wish. We suggest the program "xfontsel" for try-out of the possible fonts. In case the system says it didn't know the font, perhaps you have only forgot a dash "-"! A "*" stands for the standard value of other setting which aren't of interest here. c) size of the window With the type enhancement the program window will be magnified, too. The size of the program window can be controlled with the option "-geometry WIDTHxHEIGHT" , e.g. "Xterm -geometry 100x50&". The numbers indicate width and altitude (with emacs and xterm the number of lines and columns). d) summary Obviously it is not possible to give all options with each program start. One facility to combine all the options are the so-called Shell-Scripts (as: program runs in ASCII notation). For several examples see file "unix.tgz" which you can unpack with "tar -zxvf unix.tgz". These files can all be launched from a single file. You should customize the font size to your individual needs. Dependent on this again is the size of the window. 3.2.2 Permanent program settings in the file ".Xdefaults" ---------------------------------------------------------- The options that you have met in 3.2.1 only take effect for one program start. You can carry out permanent settings of colours and fonts/font sizes for programs in the file ".Xdefaults". You find this file in your Home directory. The above mentioned options correspond to string variables that are set in this file. When started, the program reads the these variables like - described in 3.2.1. - the command line options. xterm -fg white corresponds to xterm*foreground: white xterm -bg blue corresponds to xterm*background: blue xterm -rv corresponds to xterm*reverseVideo: true xterm -ms white corresponds to xterm*PointerColor: white If you want to take over our options you can add the ".Xdefaults" file from the "unix.tgz" archive to your ".Xdefaults" file. You will find standard settings in ".ad" files (such as Netscape.ad) which in some systems can be found in the directory "/usr/local/lib\/X11/app-defaults" or perhaps in "/var/X11R6/lib/app-defaults". You can take over the settings you want to alter in your ".Xdefaults" file and manipulate them. In some cases a re-start of the Windows manager is necessary, because some programs internally store their latest settings. 3.2.3 General settings for X-Windows ------------------------------------ On a general level, in some UNIX systems in X-Windows you can customize the outer appearance of the windows, but not the contents. Settings of colours and type of the windows and of special menus are carried out in the configuration files of the respective window manager (such as the files ".fvwmrc". ".twmrc", "Mwm"). Here you will find statements such as WindowFont -adobe-helvetica-bold-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-* for the font of the window or StdForeColor Black for the foreground colour, which you can change as depicted in the first section. The exact terms are dependent on the window manager. The explanation of details would lead too far in this place. 3.2.4 Special: Setting of "Netscape" ------------------------------------ (Program for "surfing" the INTERNET, here under UNIX) The colours of HTML documents (a special INTERNET text format) vary remarkably. Very often HTML pages have pictures as background that impede the visibility of the text a lot. The colour settings in the ".Xdefaults" file allow a colour setting appearing in each document. For this the following command is obligatory: Netscape*documentColorsHavePriority: False For one possible colour setting see our ".Wdefaults" file. The type setting of Netscape is most easily carried out in the menu under "General preferences / Fonts". 3.3 WINDOWS 95 (WIN95) ====================== First, in ch. 3.3.1. we'll give a comparative survey of Windows and Windows95. In ch. 3.3.2. you can find tips for low vision users by Elizabeth Hamilton. The two articles overlap in some items. 3.3.1 General comparison Windows - Windows 95 --------------------------------------------- A) Basic general distinctions to WINDOWS Win95 is an entirely separate operating system which - unlike WINDOWS - does not run with MS-DOS (consequences see below). As "upgrade" of WINDOWS it costs about DM 150, as full version approx. DM 400 at the time. If need be, hardware modifications are necessary: The main storage takes (at least!) 8 MB RAM instead of the previous 4 MB RAM, the hard disk needs 80 MB only for WIN95, a different keyboard including additional WIN95 keys is desirable. This additional expenditure can be worthwile if you take into account the high costs of software specifically designed for low vision users and in view of the fact that all those features are available to the computer for all its work. B) Limitations The runnability of MS-DOS programs is not always secure. Examples: a) You can't use the handy user interface QUICKMENš (ch. 1.2, p.19) as startup menu with WIN95, the first working screen ("desktop") just is the one of WIN95. b) Type enhancement programs that have been written for WINDOWS in general are not usable with WIN95 (presumably they will "also be adapted" soon). We have tested the following important WINDOWS enhancements: - LENS, METAMOUS and ZOOMIN fully work with WIN95 - WCURSOR (ch. 2.2.7, p. 43) runs, but only if there is no additional enhancement appointed under WIN95 - MAGIC (ch. 4.6, p. 57) doesn't run as its DOS component is unsuitable for WIN95 c) Other programs that have originally been written for WINDOWS also run with WIN95 (e.g. WORD, WORDPERFECT, ...), but are at the moment being "adapted" so that they run more effectively there. The upgrade takes money ... !---------------------------------------------------! ! Illustration of Wondows95: file "WIN95_02.BMP" ! !---------------------------------------------------! Illustration of WIN95: In this window many settings favourable to low vision users can be achieved. Behind this window there is the "desktop" (work area) of WIN95. C) Specific low vision user-friendly setting facilities of WIN95 On the whole, for better visibility in Win95 many settings can be carried out quite easily that weren't or were hardly possible in Windows. We introduce these facilities as follows (selection): You get to the menu for the settings about to be specified in the following manner: - Start WIN95. - Move mouse pointer to the empty desktop area, click on with right mouse key. - A "context" menu with several features for selection emerges. Move the mouse pointer to the last tab among them, the "Properties", and start it with "Return". - You will see a window "Display Properties" with 4 menu items, the most vital of which is "Appearance". Click on it. - The window shown as above appears. If you want to change something, first thing you do is select the respective element in the section "picture element", and next choose the settings in "font", "size" and "colour" (for the element and for the font). The following table compares the modifications in WINDOWS to the ones in WIN95: WINDOWS 3.11 settings WIN95 "picture element" to select -------------------------------------!------------------------------------- distinct frames for the windows ! active / inactive window frame (ch. 2.2.1) ! -------------------------------------!------------------------------------- type enhancement for the menu ! menu (ch. 2.1.2) ! -------------------------------------!------------------------------------- larger type in file manager ! cancelled, as already set with (ch. 2.1.3) ! "Symbol" * -------------------------------------!------------------------------------- larger type in the icons (ch. 2.1.5) ! symbol -------------------------------------!------------------------------------- larger iconspacing (ch. 2.1.5) ! symbol spacing (horizontal / vertical) -------------------------------------!------------------------------------- better visibility for the icons ! symbol (here alter the "size") (ch. 2.1.6) ! -------------------------------------!------------------------------------- ! * The file manager doesn't exist any more in its old shape; it has been united to a program (it is called "Explorer") with the program manager. In this "Explorer" programs, files and directories are represented as objects with a separate button. Therefore the type settings in "Explorer" are carried out via the icon type (see table)! With the menu item "Display applet" you can achieve a number of other settings, e.g. colour of the selected objects, colours of the buttons, etc. Unfortunately, we have not yet succeeded in modifying the type in certain menu items ("tabs" of register cards, similar to WinWord), nor the font of certain text in selectiomn windows (see below). D) Improved visibility for the mouse pointer (system settings) Win95 offers different predefined mouse pointers that are well suitable for low vision users. You adjust them as follows: - Start the computer. (WIN95 is launched) - Open the icon "Desktop" (double click) - Open the icon "System control" in the desktop window. - Here start the program "Mouse". - A window "Mouse applet" emerges that holds 4 menu items, the most vital of which is "Pointer". The features to select are self-explanatory. With WIN95 you can also insert mouse pointers that you have created with special "Painter programs": just select one element from the list of the activated mouse pointers and click on the button "Search...". Now you can insert a cursor file via file selection. E) WIN95 and MS-DOS starting configurations The installation routine of WIN95 automatically detects whether you use several starting configurations and adapts them to WIN95 automatically. That means that you can choose between several configurations, just like before. WIN95 takes your choice into account when starting. WARNING: When you select a starting configuration, make sure it doesn't launch a professional type enhancing software (e.g. ZOOMTEXT) as it presumably will not work with WIN95! F) Results As we have already indicated in the introductory section, the conversion from WINDOWS to WIN95 is a major change, i.e. it is costly in time and money and needs getting used to. On the other hand WIN95 allows many settings and designs that we could not have scouted and documented in such a short period of time (e.g. it could be possible to install an interface similar to QUICKMENš on the desktop ...). According to our first impressions it is not advisable to convert hurriedly as long as you still get along with your old computer. The conversion will be much more attractive when there are more applications programs, especially type enhancements and speech outputs, adapted to WIN95. 3.3.2. Windows 95: Tips for low vision users at the computer ------------------------------------------------------------- We have taken practical tips for Windows 95 for low vision computer users from Elizabeth Hamilton (elizabeth.hamilton@uc.edu) from the Internet, Copyright (c), December 1995, http://ucunix.san.uc.edu/~hamilte/wintip95.html ... (HAMILTON - TEXT) ... 3.4. Further operating systems (e.g. OS/2) ========================================== IBM has developed the Operating System OS/2, which has the ability of "preemtive" multitasking (in contrast to Windows 3.11 and Windows 95). The "Workplace Shell" (the desktop) is able to run both DOS and Windows programs. If you want to start Windows programs, you can use the Windows desktop for them (the file "progman.exe" will be started automatically). "OS/2 Warp 3" is not widespread in Germany, therefore we have not yet tested it for visually impaired people. However, we know of a very good screen reader (also developed by IBM) for OS/2, which is available for Windows, as well. The new version "Warp 4" contains several new features, which are very interesting for visually impaired people: a) a voice recognition system has been inserted and fully adapted to the system. It is usable for system control (entering commands) and for entering common spoken text. IBM is expected to add a microphone to the system package. b) Internet access (see also ch. 5.3) has also been fully inserted into the system and can be accessed in any situation.