Good points Alex. I'll change it to VARIANT.
On 9/12/12 9:13 PM, Alexander Surkov wrote:
> Hi, Pete. Having VARIANT is a great way to have extensible interface.
> This approach combines object attributes and relations ideas since
> VARIANT can be used to return an object. It's just flexible. You know
> Gecko exposes non standard object attributes (see
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Accessibility/AT-APIs/Gecko/Attrs)
> where VARIANT can be helpful too.
>
> Object attribute type examples (including Gecko's only):
> * boolean: layout-guess, cycles
> * integer: table-cell-index, line-number, setsize, level, posinset
> * length: maring-left/right/etc, text-indent: we can end up to use
> something else than string.
>
> Thanks.
> Alex.
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 10:59 AM, Pete Brunet <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hi Alex, I looked through all the object attributes (existing as documented
>> in the wiki plus the new ones we've recently documented as additions) and
>> the only non-string type I found was the list level which is an integer, but
>> it's a sub-attribute which would not be returned by itself. Since there are
>> no non-string attributes it makes sense that the IA2_2::attribute (by type)
>> method should return a BSTR. -Pete
>>
>>
>> On 9/12/12 8:15 PM, Alexander Surkov wrote:
>>
>> I was thinking of the extra work related to the fact that there would be one
>> set of code to build up the full attribute string and another to create the
>> VARIANT, but maybe the hard part was to create the full attribute string and
>> the trivial part is to create the VARIANT.
>>
>> Indeed it adds complexity for implementers. The point of VARIANT is to
>> avoid int to string (browser) and string to int (AT) conversions.
>> After all this method is just an extension of API which allows to keep
>> the conversations between the server and AT faster, thus if the server
>> decides to implement only canonical version then it keeps working.
>>
>> I don't mind using a VARIANT, but based on my work situation it would be
>> best if someone took on the job of updating the wiki document to include
>> what is returned by IA2_2::attribute for each object attribute.
>>
>> I'd suggest to do that after prototyping so we don't do mistakes in
>> hurry. Let's say the string is expected for now and VARIANT is
>> reserved for the future.
>>
>> Alex.
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 1:56 AM, Pete Brunet <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> On 9/9/12 3:11 AM, James Teh wrote:
>>
>> Hi.
>> This does make sense, though there are a few issues:
>> 1. This creates inconsistency between fetching all attributes at once and
>> fetching a single attribute. Maybe this isn't important; I'm not sure.
>> 2. Most of the integer attributes aren't strictly integers across the spec
>> and various implementations. For example, Firefox seems to provide units in
>> px, but I'm pretty sure the spec says mm.
>>
>> As for creating extra work for implementers, even in C++, working with basic
>> VARIANTs isn't too difficult. In some ways, parsing strings is probably
>> harder.
>>
>> I was thinking of the extra work related to the fact that there would be one
>> set of code to build up the full attribute string and another to create the
>> VARIANT, but maybe the hard part was to create the full attribute string and
>> the trivial part is to create the VARIANT.
>>
>> I don't mind using a VARIANT, but based on my work situation it would be
>> best if someone took on the job of updating the wiki document to include
>> what is returned by IA2_2::attribute for each object attribute.
>>
>>
>> Jamie
>>
>> On 8/09/2012 10:38 AM, Pete Brunet wrote:
>>
>> Hi Alex, At least from the perspective of the spec I don't have time to
>> make this change, i.e. I think it would take quite a bit of time for me
>> to specify which VARIANT type is returned for each of the attributes in
>> the spec. Some else could pick up that work though. Updating the method
>> from BSTR to VARIANT would be easy enough though. Is this also extra
>> work for the implementers? -Pete
>>
>> On 9/7/12 7:20 PM, Alexander Surkov wrote:
>>
>> Hi. Since we are going to introduce a method that allows to fetch
>> object attribute by name then it should be nice if we are able to
>> return typed value. For example, if the AT wants a margin-top object
>> attribute then the server could return an integer.
>>
>> Thank you.
>> Alex.
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Pete Brunet*
>>
>> a11ysoft - Accessibility Architecture and Development
>> (512) 467-4706 (work), (512) 689-4155 (cell)
>> Skype: pete.brunet
>> IM: ptbrunet (AOL, Google), [email protected] (MSN)
>> http://www.a11ysoft.com/about/
>> Ionosphere: WS4G
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Pete Brunet
>>
>>
>> a11ysoft - Accessibility Architecture and Development
>> (512) 467-4706 (work), (512) 689-4155 (cell)
>> Skype: pete.brunet
>> IM: ptbrunet (AOL, Google), [email protected] (MSN)
>> http://www.a11ysoft.com/about/
>> Ionosphere: WS4G
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Accessibility-ia2 mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/accessibility-ia2
>>
>>
>> --
>> Pete Brunet
>>
>> a11ysoft - Accessibility Architecture and Development
>> (512) 467-4706 (work), (512) 689-4155 (cell)
>> Skype: pete.brunet
>> IM: ptbrunet (AOL, Google), [email protected] (MSN)
>> http://www.a11ysoft.com/about/
>> Ionosphere: WS4G
--
*Pete Brunet*
a11ysoft - Accessibility Architecture and Development
(512) 467-4706 (work), (512) 689-4155 (cell)
Skype: pete.brunet
IM: ptbrunet (AOL, Google), [email protected] (MSN)
http://www.a11ysoft.com/about/
Ionosphere: WS4G
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