Re: the keyboard accessibility capplet

[Jody Goldberg <jody gnome org>]

On Wed, Sep 25, 2002 at 04:13:24PM -0400, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> Maybe it's just me - here's what I think is wrong with it:
> 
>  - Having both a slider and a spinbutton for one setting makes the
>    whole thing look awful and 10x more confusing.
This is a specific accessibility request.  In various capplets we've
had
    - option menus : and bug reports that this was too limiting
    - sliders : and bug reports that it is impossible to set
                a specific value
    - slider + spinner : and bug reports that it is too complex.

The choice in and of itself is simple and should be consistent
across the capplets.  Lets trust Calum and the usability folk and
let them make the choice.
 
>  - the title of the window is inconsistent with other capplets 
>    ("Configuration" not "Preferences").
>  - putting a space before colons in labels is just wrong.
UI review missed them, changing is trivial.

>  - the title says "AccessX" which is UNIX-workstation-cruft
>    terminology.
It is apparently a recognized term in the accessibility community.
Having it in the title in parenthesis is a compromise.

>  - the "enable keyboard accessibility" checkbox is bad; most users
>    here will interpret it to mean "make my keyboard work" and wonder
>    why they would uncheck it.
This is also a specific request.  The accessibiltiy settings some
some users make it difficult for others to use the keysboard.
However, the settings are sufficiently complex that it was deemed
a requirement that you should be able to enable and disable them
en-mass without losing the state.

>  - the "Import CDE AccessX file" button should be in a
>    Solaris-specific --enable-solaris-stuff compile option, and absent
>    otherwise. And probably does not belong in the dialog button box
>    anyway, it's not a dialog action.
It is not solaris specific.  Anyone coming from CDE can use it.

>  - abbreviation "msecs" is not good.
This is what the docs and usability folk requested.
 
>  - the mouse prefs are duplicated from the "Mouse" control panel, 
>    adding to the extra clutter.
There is no overlap.  Those are completely different settings.
mouse != mouse keys

>  - the button to open the Keyboard capplet is bogus; if people want
>    Keyboard settings they go to Preferences->Keyboard. It would make
>    more sense to have an Accessibility button in the Keyboard control
>    panel, if anything.
This was requested because keyboard repeat rate is sometimes
considered an accessibility setting.  After much debate the current
appoach was selected over other versions, such as merging the
controls into the keyboard capplet.

>  - unless it was fixed recently, it still appears as the only item 
>    in its own submenu.
This is transitional.  The belief is that there will be other
accessibility configuration elements.  

> So this thing is twice as big and confusing as it needs to be, due to
> extra sliders/spinbuttons, extra buttons in general, duplication of
> mouse capplet; and it adds a whole submenu to the Preferences menu.
>
> I don't know if I have the right answer to all the problems, but can
> we _at least_ lose the slider/spinbutton stuff, and the AccessX stuff,
> and the extra one-item submenu?

It is as small as it could be and still meet the requirements.
If you'd like to change the requirements that's fine.

Havoc please contact me if you'd like me to go over the damn thing
with you.  So many people have made so many conflicting requests
about this dialog that it amazes me that it is no uglier than it is.