Text field encoding certain characters weirdly with NVDA screen reader

[Quin]

Hi,
Great work on MasmBASIC!
However, I'm noticing a strange problem with RichMasm.
If I open the help file for example, and try to read the first line, my screen reader hammers me with all of this:

°B$;005e005e011b1s004nB7106T00Hb6020033_Mbxpxysrit3Mb_andyynit2MbExponsrit5MbExpdyyrit6Expandnyrit7environyrit5#$regxayrit4#$plrsayrit6_MbHexyyrit80005e0001006B0001006t00000838000E006m0000005c0000t90zc0Vn#; The smallprint: this library is provided "as is", and the usual disclaimers apply.

I have utterly no idea why this is, but it happens all over the place in this help file.
Interestingly, if I switch to Narrator, the built-in screen reader for windows, it reads it fine, but seems to think that the smallprint is in french, and the assembly code is..german? I have utterly no idea.
I also see it on a smaller scale when I open a .asm file, for example .data will read as °data, but only sometimes.
I have utterly no idea what causes this, but I can tell you at least that QEditor doesn't do it at least.
Thanks for your time.

[jj2007]

Well, this is rtf, and it's supposed to be opened with RichMasm. You can open it also with any other application that knows about Rich Text Format, MS Word for example, and the odd things will or will not be shown depending on whether you allow the program to show hidden text...

What you see there is hidden settings: last pos on screen, width & height, the last eight locations you visited in the file (!), and many more...

This is quite an overkill for a 100 lines template, but if you ever reach 20,000 lines or so, you will surely appreciate that the editor remembers the last eight positions where you worked on your code; and a few other things, such as bookmarks and the search list ;-)

[Quin]

Hi JJ,
Thanks for your reply!
I think the problem lies in how you're using the edit control, not in the edit control itself. Don't get me wrong, rich edit is a buggy piece of software that was probably written by a bunch of drunk Microsoft interns, but me only seeing this in your app and not in Wordpad, QEditor, or many other apps that use Rich Edit makes me suspect that it's RichMasm's doing.

[jj2007]

Now I am curious what you see there: can you post a screenshot please? There is the "Add image to post" link in the lower left...

[Quin]

I'm not sure if that'd be particularly helpful, I'm blind and have no screen attached.
If you wouldn't mind, try downloading the free NVDA screen reader from https://nvaccess.org/download, and then try to read the text field in RichMasm with the up and down arrow keys.

[jj2007]

Ok, that was kind of unexpected ;-)

Quin, I checked with the NVDA reader and confirm the issue: it does indeed read the hidden text. I also tested it with my old Microsoft Word 2003, and there it depends on where you check the "show hidden text" option. So yes, it is an issue with RichMasm

me only seeing this in your app and not in Wordpad, QEditor, or many other apps that use Rich Edit makes me suspect that it's RichMasm's doing

QEditor can't read RTF files. Wordpad can, but it has no option to show the hidden text, so I assume that's the reason why you can't hear the hidden text.

Now it might be possible to find a solution for that, but so far I don't see any. The easiest workaround is to press the arrow down key when you hear that stuff in the first line...

Many features work just fine; the "find" listbox, for example, and the tooltips for some of the functions in the upper right corner. The bookmarks unfortunately don't get read.

Quin, my compliments: you have a tough life and seem to manage very well. I wonder whether RichMasm or QEditor are better for you. Difficult to say...

[zedd]

Quin, I checked with the NVDA reader and confirm the issue

I just did the same thing.    I can also confirm.

Quin, my compliments: you have a tough life and seem to manage very well.

Also the same here, Quin. I cannot imagine what you must go through to do things that most, if not all of us take for granted.

[Quin]

Ok, that was kind of unexpected ;-)

Quin, I checked with the NVDA reader and confirm the issue: it does indeed read the hidden text. I also tested it with my old Microsoft Word 2003, and there it depends on where you check the "show hidden text" option. So yes, it is an issue with RichMasm

QEditor can't read RTF files. Wordpad can, but it has no option to show the hidden text, so I assume that's the reason why you can't hear the hidden text.

Now it might be possible to find a solution for that, but so far I don't see any. The easiest workaround is to press the arrow down key when you hear that stuff in the first line...

Interesting. I wonder what WordPad does to hide the hidden text by default?

Quin, my compliments: you have a tough life and seem to manage very well. I wonder whether RichMasm or QEditor are better for you. Difficult to say...

Thanks, it's certainly not easy, but I try not to dwell on it, there are certainly days when it's hard to even get up but being the angry, bitter blind person isn't going to get me anywhere any faster than pretending to smile, so I just do that.
So far, QEditor seems to work better, mostly because RichMasm's hidden text issue has some other weird side effects. I opened one of the examples, and the .data line got read as .data when I arrowed over it, but when I read by character it said "symbol data" 

[Quin]

Also the same here, Quin. I cannot imagine what you must go through to do things that most, if not all of us take for granted.

Thanks Zedd. So many people simply don't think about it, and it's shown in the state of modern software. So many inaccessible websites, broken pieces of software, everything. I've long been known to say "I wonder what it'd be like to be able to use a computer for more than a 12 hour period without my disability becoming a serious barrier to something I'm trying to do".

[jj2007]

I wonder what WordPad does to hide the hidden text by default?

I've contacted one of the NVDA screen reader developers. I am curious, too. There are many versions of the riched control, it's an incredible mess but it works just fine for me...

[Quin]

I wonder what WordPad does to hide the hidden text by default?

I've contacted one of the NVDA screen reader developers. I am curious, too. There are many versions of the riched control, it's an incredible mess but it works just fine for me...

Wow, you're dedicated! This is why I love niche programming forums for cool tools like Masm, people care much more than large companies :D
Who did you contact? My personal recommendation would be Jamie Teh, he no longer officially works on the NVDA screen reader but he's a huge part of the reason it's as good as it is today, and frankly it's gone down hill since he left and only became a casual contributor. He has one of the deepest knowledges of Windows accessibility of anyone I know.

[jj2007]

Who did you contact?

His name is Leonard de Ruijter. I sent him a LinkedIn invitation, so far no reply.