Re: 2.4 New Accessibility Features

[Bill Haneman <bill haneman sun com>]

On Wed, 2003-05-21 at 17:05, Glynn Foster wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> > * gnome-themes: new gtk-engine for HC themes.  Working, 
> > 	better than the default engine for visibility, possibly
> > 	a few minor bugs/regressions which are fixable pre-2.4.
> > 	Already in CVS.
> 
> Slightly off topic here - what is the suituation with gnome-themes and
> gtk-engines? Currently we seem to have -
> 
> 	gtk-engines
> 		- metal
> 		- pixbuf
> 		- raleigh
> 	gnome-themes
> 		- crux

We now have a 'gtk-engines' subdirectory in gnome-themes; personally I
think the shared engines (at least, any new ones other than those
"traditionally" in the gtk-engines CVS module) should go there, if
themes in gnome-themes use them).

> While I'm certainly not disagreeing to the include of a new gtk-engine
> to help the accessibility, I'm rather confused over the location
> problem.
> 
> > * gnome-control-center: Two new capplets for the 'accessibility' menu
> > 	o Assistive Technology Support (aka gnome-at-properties);
> > 		provides UI for toggling the 'accessibility' gconf key.
> > 		also provides shortcut UI for adding ATs to the user's 	session,
> > which is otherwise difficult or impossible from the 
> > 		session menus.
> > 	o GNOME System Bell Properties (aka gnome-bell-properties)
> > 		provides UI for toggling audio bell
> > 			(important for AccessX users who need key feedback since the audio
> > feedback can 
> > 			drive neighbors nuts otherwise)	
> > `		provides UI for configuring "visual bell" feature.
> > 
> > 	This code is in a bugzilla patch for bug #113307.
> >         http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=113307
> > 	The icons are purely placeholders at this time, Calum
> > 	is building better ones for these capplets.
> 
> I've put up screenshots - don't mind about the icons [1], I just used
> those to get it working -
> 
> 	http://www.gnome.org/~gman/Screenshot-Gnome-at-properties.png 
> 	http://www.gnome.org/~gman/Screenshot-Gnome-bell-properties.png 

Why didn't you use the icons in the patch? (maybe the patch is missing
them, not sure).

> My only concern is the possible confusion of the UI keyboard preference
> dialog with the 'keyboard' bell, although Bill mentioned that this is
> something entirely different.

Yeah, no relation to the "keyboard bell" which bleeps at you every time
a key is pressed (i.e. the old keyboard bell is basically keyclick).

> > * gnome-applets:
> > 
> > 	o Applet to show accessx status (sticky keys status, etc.)
> > 
> > 	Calum discussed the UI at length on d-d-l, the icons are not yet
> > 	final.  We went with an applet rather than a notification
> > 	doohickey since the notification icons at the moment need to 
> > 	be square-ish, etc. and for other technical reasons.
> > 	I have written a version of the applet *without the icons*, 
> > 	which just displays stuff in a GtkLabel, into 
> > 	which we'll put the icons in the next few days - so this is
> > 	far from vaporware, but you'd do better to look at Calum's 
> > 	notes to see how the final applet will look.  The
> > 	notification/listener and update code (i.e. most of the  
> >         internals) are written.  The relevant bug is 98488
> > 	which is against control-center, but possibly this code should
> > 	go into gnome-applets instead.  At the moment it's a separate
> > 	module on my machine, I attached a standalone gzipped
> > 	tarball to the bugzilla bug, rather than a patch:
> > 	http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=98488
> 
> Okay, with a bit of hacking [since the tarball in the bug report isn't a
> proper dist tarball], I got it working -
> 
> 	http://www.gnome.org/~gman/Screenshot-Lt-panel-test-applets-1.png
> 	http://www.gnome.org/~gman/Screenshot-Lt-panel-test-applets.png
> 
> Obviously I'm not terribly excited by the results. I'm not sure what
> else is to say :/

Screenshots of this applet are totally useless.  I said at length that
you should look at Calum's document for visuals; the tarball just shows
that the backing code for the visuals is present and working.

- Bill

> > It might also be worth looking at Calum's accessibility bug list 
> > http://www.gnome.org/~calum/access-bugs.html
> > to see if any of the "Urgent" bugs require feature-ish fixes, so we can
> > try to expedite them before feature freeze.  We don't want to get caught
> > post-freeze with good accessibility patches that we can't apply.
> 
> I think features are probably okay - introducing new standalone dialogs
> into the Desktop Preferences menu, new gtk-engines, new applets do count
> as new 'modules', although I'll admit, it's rather confusing
> terminology.
> 
> Would definitely be good to get some discussion going on these changes.
> 
> 			Glynn ;)
> 
> [1] Hack on panel - let Mark feel the love! <subliminal/>
>