There's nothing wrong with having sensible defaults, but I struggle to believe there is a set of magic bindings which work on all hardware. How about running a configuration program at Orca's first startup that would take information about the user's keyboard as input (the Ubuntu installer already includes a program for guessing keyboard layouts) and generate a set of sane defaults based on that?
We would need two basic Orca sets: one for keyboards with easy number pad access, and one for keyboard layouts without. The remaining problem is what would be the Orca modifier key. How about a list of potential Orca keys in order of preference, with the configuration program presenting the first available key as default. How about something like the following list: Right Windows key Left Windows key Insert AltGr/Right alt Scroll lock Caps Lock "Access IBM" and similar keys Special navigation keys (my Thinkpad has back and forwards keys for web navigation) It seems to me crucial to change Orca (and LSR) keys from the same control panel that configures other Gnome key bindings in order to minimize conflicts with core Gnome bindings for application functionality and special character entry. The question of the Orca keys is but a symptom of a much larger problem. Key bindings, with their inherent tension between supplementing and replacing the mouse, between interfaces accessible and making them faster, are a naturally complex subject. In the case of Linux, the horrible problem of key bindings is exacerbated both by the sheer range of hardware that can run Linux and by the glorious chaos of its software. Running Vim in a Gnome Terminal or a web application in Mozilla on Gnome with Orca enabled creates a serious potential for conflicts between key bindings. And when you're dependent on the keyboard, such conflicts threaten basic usability. Despite its intrinsic difficulties, the problem of key bindings is extremely unsexy. So if I were to say, for example, that we need a control panel that, when the user changes a key binding, can introspect the configuration files of key end-user applications for conflicts, I am not optimistic I would attract many enthusiasts for building it. Yet that is precisely what a humane interface for configuring key bindings demands. If one baulks even at the idea of coding a program that can juggle key bindings, is it fair to expect human beings to do so? Surely a control panel that could resolve conflicts between web access keys and Orca, or Vim and Orca is not intrinsically impossible? The biggest obstacle would seem to be gathering information about the modes and contexts in which console application key combinations apply, but that's not exactly an insurmountable problem. -- Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis _______________________________________________ gnome-accessibility-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-accessibility-list
