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pep 8 constants

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Fri Jul 3 15:51:56 EDT 2009 
Eric S. Johansson wrote:
> Horace Blegg wrote:
>> I've been kinda following this. I have a cousin who is permanently wheel
>> chair bound and doesn't have perfect control of her hands, but still
>> manages to use a computer and interact with society. However, the
>> idea/thought of disabled programmers was new to me/hadn't ever occurred
>> to me.
>>
>> You say that using your hands is painful, but what about your feet?
>> Wouldn't it be possible to rig up some kind of foot peddle for
>> shift/caps lock? Kinda like the power peddle used with sowing machines,
>> so the hands are free to hold fabric.
>>
>> I don't mean this in a condescending manor, and I apologize if you take
>> it as such. I'm genuinely curious if you think something like this could
>> work.
>>
>> The way I was envisioning it working last night (and I haven't the
>> faintest clue how SR works, nor have I ever used SR) was that you would
>> hit the foot peddle, which would tell the SR program to capitalize the
>> first letter of the next word (a smart shift, basically, so you don't
>> end up doing something like ... WONderland -or- "stocks are up 1,0))%
>> TOday".)
>>
>> Possible? Stupid?
>>
> it's not stupid.
> 
> People have used foot pedals for decades for a variety of controls. I don't
> think foot pedals would work for me because when I am dictating, I pace.
> Standing, sitting, I pace. With a cord headset, I'm forced to stay within about
> 4 feet of the computer. But what I'm using a Bluetooth headset, I will sometimes
> ramble as far as 10 or 15 feet from the computer. It helps if I make the font
> larger so I can glance over and see what kind of errors I've gotten.
> 
> I really love a Bluetooth headset with speech recognition. It's so liberating.
> 
> Your question about foot pedals makes me think of alternative. would it make
> sense to have a handheld keyboard which would be used for command-and-control
> functionality or as an adjunct to speech recognition use? It would have to be
> designed in such a way that it doesn't aggravate a hand injury which may not be
> possible. Anyway, just thinking out loud.

As long as we are thinking wildly, how about a pair of 
bluetooth-connected switches on a belt or chest band that you could 
press with your arms or elbows -- no hands involved. Sort of become a 
walking mouse ;-).

Terry
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