Re: [g-a-devel] [gdm-list] onboard and mousetweaks for gdm and gnome
- From: Francesco Fumanti <francesco fumanti gmx net>
- To: Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>
- Cc: gnome-accessibility-devel gnome org, gdm-list gnome org
- Subject: Re: [g-a-devel] [gdm-list] onboard and mousetweaks for gdm and gnome
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:29:08 +0200
Hello Brian,
I am glad to hear that there are more options for users with a11y
needs. I'd be happy to accept patches that would allow GDM to be
configured to startup these new applications via the gesture listener
mechanisms.
Much will probably depend on whether they will be part of the GNOME
Desktop or not:
1. If they are going to be part of GNOME, I think that GDM only needs
to provide a userfriendly way to start them
2. If they are not going to be part of the GNOME Desktop, I think
that it would be odd to have some accessibility feature during the
GDM session, but not during the subsequent GNOME session. I am saying
this because I am assuming the following: the normal use of GDM is in
conjunction with the GNOME Desktop (even if it also works with other
Desktop environments). If this correct?
To 1: For this, I would say that bug 443873 and bug 463713 should be
considered.
To 2: Otherwise, it would probably make sense to automatically
activate in the GNOME session, the a11y features that the user
activated during the GDM session (I think that there is already a bug
filed for this, but I cannot find it anymore).
If you also are interested in enhancing GDM to launch AT programs
in more novel ways (e.g. by directly integrating them into GDM), then
we should discuss.
Yes, I am still interested in something similar to bug 463713. But I
think that I will first try to enhance the dwellmouselistener.c code
to add the killing of the app started by a pointer gesture (as we
discussed few weeks ago). Is there any documentation about the
dwellmouselistener.c code beside the few comments within the code
itself?
If you want to discuss about any other enhancements, please feel free to do so.
Since GDM is currently being rewritten, it might make sense to hold
off on more tightly integrating with GDM until its more clear how to
do this in the new GDM rewrite, though.
Is there any place where I can learn more about what is being done?
Cheers
Francesco
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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