A new version of the NVDA Miscellaneous Dependencies package has been released. This includes a new version of the virtual buffer library.

Highlights include:

• Fix some potential lag in NVDA on very dynamic sites such as MSDN.
• Fix crashes on certain sites such as http://www.pennytel.com/.
• Fix crashes in documents that only contain an empty node.
• For images which aren't contained within a link, use the URL of the image itself. This means that images which aren't links will now be rendered with some information. Addresses #51.
• Filter the URLs rendered for images to make them more readable. This should make for much nicer reading on pages with unlabelled graphics. Addresses #51.

This will be included in NVDA snapshots from r2079.

For users running from source, please update to at least r2079 before installing this package.

It has been quite some time since the last general post. A great deal has happened over the past couple of months, including the CSUN conference and preparation therefor, about which I posted separately. I have thus been dreading writing this, as I struggle to remember some of the minor, but nonetheless important, happenings of the last couple of months.

Perhaps the most exciting work on NVDA has been that relating to the new in-process virtual buffers for Mozilla Gecko 1.9, which includes Firefox 3 and Thunderbird 3. Current NVDA users would certainly be aware of this, even if they haven't tried it personally. NVDA 0.6p1, released just before CSUN, was the first release to feature these new buffers. Aside from massive improvements in reliability and accuracy, the new code allows for almost instantaneous rendering of pages in most cases thanks to its in-process workings. The new code also sports a far better design which makes many exciting features possible that were either impossible or extremely difficult to implement in the old code. For example, it took me only about half an hour to plan and implement the links list, a feature coveted by many users and which I use frequently myself. This was a great reinforcement of our design choices. The code in both the virtual buffer library and NVDA itself has continued to improve steadily since CSUN. While still under steady development, the goals in the web access grant from the Mozilla Foundation are almost complete. One major feature which is currently missing is the ability to efficiently navigate and read tables. Also, NVDA currently does not automatically report changes in live regions, although it does dynamically update the buffer. Nevertheless, Mick and I both use NVDA on the web full time and are very satisfied. Mick, who did the majority of the work on this project, has done an absolutely fantastic job.

Aside from assisting Mick with the virtual buffer work, I have worked on a lot of bug fixes, general improvements and code cleanup. One of the largest of the improvements is perhaps the refactoring of the NVDA GUI, which was included in 0.6p1. The NVDA window is now gone and everything is instead accessed from the NVDA system tray menu. A lot of issues with NVDA windows not gaining focus were fixed. In the last few days, I introduced more fixes in this area, including the elimination of the freezing in NVDA dialogs which occurred on some systems, particularly in Windows Vista. These are important changes in terms of user experience. I have also spent some time working on two tools useful in NVDA development. The log viewer simply allows the user to quickly view the NVDA log file right from the NVDA menu, rather than having to find the NVDA log file and open it with a text editor. It can be refreshed with a single key press and refreshes automatically when switching back to the window. In addition, it allows the user to save the current log content. It is thus useful to both users and developers alike. The other tool is the NVDA Python console, which allows developers to interact with the running internals of NVDA using a Python interpreter. Not only is this extremely useful in debugging NVDA, but it can also assist in inspecting the accessibility architecture of other applications.

I have been holding the fort somewhat more than usual in the last month, as Mick became the proud father of a baby girl in April. Congratulations, Mick! This has been a bit of a challenge for me, as I have had to adapt to working with less of his valuable feedback and collaboration. Even so, despite the exhaustion and chaos of early fatherhood, Mick has still managed to make some very significant contributions to NVDA and has been steadily increasing his working hours over the last couple of weeks.

Other than coding, we have done a lot of work in relation to the NVDA project resources and collaboration tools. I have been strongly encouraging users to use Trac to report issues and Mick and I now make extensive use of it ourselves. Thanks to all of the users who have started to use this resource. It is certainly improving the organisation of the project and makes it much easier for developers and other users to keep track of reported issues. Due to our previous hosting provider becoming ever more unreliable, we moved all of our internet services to a new server. I moved all of the important articles from our old wiki, taken down due to increasing spam and lack of maintenance, to the Trac wiki. Some work still needs to be done to the Trac front page to allow these articles to be found and to provide better direction for new users. I made some long needed updates to the NVDA web site. Most recently, we migrated the NVDA Wordpress blog to Trac, which allows for easier posting, maintenance and integration with the rest of Trac.

Outside of NVDA, both Mick and I have spent a great deal of time testing Mozilla Firefox 3. We have filed several significant bug reports relating to accessibility, some of which have resulted in noteable improvements to Mozilla accessibility, sometimes not just for NVDA, but for other assistive technologies as well. We have continued to attend meetings and contribute to the IAccessible2 effort. Due to the increasing number of external issues we are reporting and tracking, we have started the ExternalBugs wiki page to list and provide links to all of these reports.

Although Mick and I talk via phone on a daily basis, we decided in a recent discussion that we will meet in person for another NVDA hack fest some time in June. We have plans for some major improvements to the core of NVDA; specifically, the creation and handling of NVDAObjects. Topics such as proper support for tables and future plans will also be covered. We will probably make another 0.6 preview release some time over the next few months. I will then embark on implementing support for braille in NVDA.