RE: 2.4 Proposed Modules - gok

[Bill Haneman <bill haneman sun com>]

On Fri, 2003-05-09 at 10:00, Murray Cumming Comneon com wrote:

> > Is this just to distinguish different _types_ of keys? e.g. 
> > alphanumeric
> > keys and modifier keys? Is there a good reason why all keys 
> > must be some
> > shade of blue? 

They're not all blue, so I am not sure what you mean.  But yes, it's
very helpful to distinguish different _types_ of keys, as you point out.

Al alternative, though possible not a practical one due to space
requirements, would be to add images to GOK's buttons: this is RFE
108055.

However, since GOK must be a "topmost-always" window, and must compete
for space with the user's foreground application, space is very much at
a premium.  This impacts all the UI decisions regarding the GOK main
window.

> > > GOK is unusual in several ways, but it does need to be in 
> > > order to meet
> > > the specialized needs of its users. 
> > 
> > It would be interesting to hear more about this.
> 
> I would really like to hear answers to these questions. I'm happy to believe
> that there are good reasons, but it's still nice to know what they are.
 
What specific questions do you have?  Giving a general "what is GOK and
why" discussion, in full technical detail with rationale, might take a
lot of typing and I still might miss your question.

The GOK core team at the University of Toronto designed the UI; they may
not be particularly expert in GNOME UI design but they are very much
experts in the UI design of onscreen keyboards.  I think it does and did
make sense to start from UT's experience and then try to adapt that to
the GNOME context rather than build something that "looks like GNOME"
but fails to build on the clinical experience and on UI precedents in
the accessibility/OSK world.
 
If you have questions about specific aspects of the GOK UI I am sure
David or Simon will be able to answer you best; however I can take a
stab at explaining them as well.

- Bill

> Murray Cumming
> murrayc usa net
> www.murrayc.com 
> 
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