Re: [g-a-devel] onboard and mousetweaks for gdm and gnome

[David Bolter <dtb gnome org>]

This would be a good topic for the Boston GNOME Accessibility Summit.  
Are any of the onboard or mousetweaks folks going to be there?  If so 
please contact me.  It would be great to make sure we have all the gaps 
covered in the alternative intput space on GNOME.

http://live.gnome.org/Boston2007/AccessibilitySummit

cheers,
David

Francesco Fumanti wrote:
> Hello,
>
>
> I would like to inform you about the existence of 2 applications that 
> I would like to be considered as candidates for integration to the 
> GNOME platform; and this especially for the second because it offers 
> fonctionalities still missing in GNOME. The first is the onscreen 
> keyboard called onboard (previously called sok) and the second is a 
> pointer enhancement utility called mousetweaks.
>
> Both are able to run during a gdmlogin session and during a normal 
> GNOME session (at least on my Ubuntu 7.10 installation).
>
>
> Please, have a look at the first picture of the following website to 
> see onboard and mousetweaks work under gdmlogin:
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Accessibility/doc/OnboardAndDwellAtGDM?action=show
>
> Of course, in the GNOME session, onboard and mousetweaks are both in 
> resizable windows.
>
>
>
> 1. OnBoard
>
> Onboard is already part of Ubuntu since Ubuntu 7.04. It is written in 
> python and can be used by people in need of an onscreen keyboard, but 
> without the need of all the accessibility features provided by gok.
>
> Here are its main features:
> - works with zero configuration
> - comprehensive language support
> - macros, phrases or sentences assigned to a key
> - keyboard layouts that are easy to create and modify
> - keys can perform an action such as switching mouse buttons
> - Re-sizable so that you can make best use of your screen
>
> You can read more about it here:
> http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/cej105/onboard/
>
> The specification used during development is here:
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Accessibility/Projects/onBoard
>
> It is hosted on launchpad:
> https://launchpad.net/onboard
>
> As it is also possible to start onboard during a gdmlogin session, it 
> can be especially interesting to tabletpc users.
>
>
>
> 2. MouseTweaks
>
> Mousetweaks is an utility to add new fonctionalities to the pointer. 
> It provides:
>
> - An optional capture area on the panel: if the pointer moves into 
> that area, it gets trapped and the user has to enter a determined key 
> combination to release the pointer.
>
> - The "delay click": it is an additional way to open the contextual 
> menu, namely by keeping the left mousebutton pressed without moving 
> the pointer for a determined time.
>
> - The "dwell click": it is a way to perform a single click, double 
> click, drag click and right click automatically without having to 
> click with a hardware button. It is in fact a click performed by 
> software at the location of the pointer, when the pointer remains 
> motionless for a determined time. It is considered an accessibility 
> feature and as far as I know, GNOME does not currently provide any 
> way to do a dwell click. (It is this fonctionality that you can see 
> on the picture of the site indicated by the first link of this email.)
>
>
> Mousetweaks implementation was started as a GSoC 07 project for 
> Ubuntu by Gerd Kohlberger:
> http://gerdk.blogspot.com/
>
> Its source code will soon be hosted on launchpad.net.
>
> Here is the page with the original specification:
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Accessibility/Specs/MouseTweaks
>
> (I would like to point out that the gesture fonctionality indicated 
> in the specification is not part of mousetweaks anymore. It has been 
> moved into a separate application called chickenscratch and that is 
> already hosted on launchpad: https://launchpad.net/cs But that is 
> another topic.)
>
>
> Many thanks in advance for any comment and suggestion.
>
> Have a nice day.
>
> Francesco Fumanti
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