Re: Git hosting (was Re: Solving screenreader sound problems ...)

[Jookia <contact@jookia.org>]

On Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 12:44:35AM -0800, Chris Brannon wrote:
> Javascript that lags my Pi 4 to unusability?  I have an old Acer netbook
> that I use while traveling sometimes.  I wouldn't dare try running
> firefox on that anymore.  I've had privileged people tell me to get a
> newer / faster / more powerful computer.

So support for lightweight computers, got it. I'm running on something
with less power than a Raspberry Pi 4 so I get it, I really do.

> Ok.  I have no vision.  Not light perception.  Squat.  And I never
> have.  That's my frame of reference, my bias.

Ok.

> So sourcehut doesn't have skip links?  Unlike Github, it is free
> software.  Has someone tried sending patches?  Were they rejected?  If
> they were, then that's a problem.  I'd fork it myself and accept those
> patches.

Do it then. I've spoken with the author of sourcehut and they don't seem
to really understand accessibility, and sourcehut's actual website and
workflow confuses me too much to actually open an issue.

> You know, you just gave me an excellent notion.  I've been
> told that gitea is hostile to adding accessibility features.  It
> supports the kind of pull request workflow popularized by github, and
> it's free software.
> Now I'm tempted to fork it and solicit accessibility patches.
> 
> We have different frames of reference.  You seem like someone I can
> work with.  Interested in collaborating on a gitea fork?

I'm the only person to my knowlede that has ever implemented
accessibility improvements for Gitea and done an overview of the code.
Gitea isn't hostile to accessibility features, but the codebase is
written in such a way that making the UI elements screen readable would
require a rewrite.
Nobody's stepping up to that task so Gitea accessibility is just a pipe
dream at the moment.

> And I find the whole thing confusing and verbose.  It works, but it
> isn't pleasant.  Fortunately they have an API and there are command line tools.

Does sourcehut have command line tools?

> If you are a power user, having things explained to you all the time
> is just a distraction.  Investing time to learn pays off mightily.
> Speech and braille are inherently low-bandwidth channels.  I suspect
> screen magnification is somewhat low bandwidth too, just not as strongly.

Ok. Do you only care about power users?

> Use the back button?  A lot of web applications break the back button,
> but on both github and sourcehut it is usable.

If someone links me to some patch or some issue, there's no way to go to
the code or other parts of the project. This is a huge navigation issue.

> If you're using git, you're already using a notoriously user-hostile VCS
> anyway.  It is widely adopted because Linux uses it and because of
> Github.  Is having to use email to submit patches really that much more
> of a burden?  I've taught people to get up and running with
> git send-email in a matter of minutes.  Patches and email have been around
> for decades; they'll be around long after Github is gone, and they work
> even in the most constrained of environments.

Yes, it's that much more of a burden. I've tried it with multiple
projects that I've contributed to and found that mail-based workflows
are a lot harder to deal with. Having stuff scattered everywhere instead
of a single page or set of pages is a nightmare for me.

I'm not trying to waste your time by bringing up nitpicks with easy
answers, I'm voicing legitimate accessibility issues that you should be
aware about if you're going to choose to use sourcehut. You will be
excluding a set of users like me from contributing.

Jookia.