Re: how to get zsh to work with a screen reader

[Bart Schaefer <schaefer@brasslantern.com>]

On Jul 21,  2:37pm, covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
} Subject: how to get zsh to work with a screen reader
}
} when I use zsh, I hear the entire line repeated when I do a completion,
} or after I type a carriage return, I hear the line I just typed, even
} though there is not an extra copy on the screen.  So what I was
} wondering, is if zsh is writing the whole line out under many conditions

The ZLE editor does not use the curses package for screen optimization,
so among other things if the cursor is at column X and needs to move
across some existing text to column X+10, ZLE may reprint the characters
rather than emit a cursor movement command.

It will also prefer to overstrike a region with the text that is meant
to appear there, rather than to assume the text is already visible and
simply move past it, because it does not attempt to maintain an internal
data structure that reflects the contents of the screen -- it only keeps
a data structure for the text of the prompt and the contents of the edit
buffer.  So any time it wants the screen and the buffer to match, the
only way it can be certain that is true is to reprint everything.

The assumption is that the terminal emulator will either optimize out
unnecessary redrawing, or be fast enough that it doesn't matter.  That's
obviously not the case for a text-to-speech translator that interposes
between the shell output and the terminal.

Sadly, there's no practical approach I can think of to rectify this.