Re: gdm a11y issues

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Julian:

> > 2. gdm does not support theming:
> >
> >    http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=125070
> >
> >    It is important for the user to be able to change the theme to LargeIcon,
> >    Inverse, etc. in order to support various visibility impairments.  I'm
> >    not sure the best approach to allow the user to change the theme. 
>
> We have a local patch to allow users to change the resolution of their
> display pre-logging in.  All it does it move the XF86Config (via a symlink
> change), and restart the X server.  We could cope with some other changes
> via this mechanism, but I accept that it doesn't scale very well.
>
> From our point of view it is better than windows can manage, so we are
> ahead of the game.

Yes, but it would be much better if it were possible to just change the
GTK+ theme to one of the a11y themes (LargeFont, HighContrast, Inverse,
etc.).  Changing the resolution perhaps is a reasonable substitute for
the LargeFont theme, but does not address the other cases (HighContrast,
Inverse, etc.)

Plus, I suppose there is no reason why users couldn't change the theme to
other GTK+ themes for a flashier gdm look & feel.  :)

I do notice that the gdm screen's do not resize well with the LargeFont
theme.  Rather than resizing the windows nicely, various widgets get
clipped.  Some work is necessary to fix various gdm2 GUI's so that they
resize when the theme specifies a larger font.


> >    Perhaps we could add a menu where the user could select various a11y
> >    themes that are available for use, or perhaps the gesture listener
> >    mechanism could be used to launch a program that allows the user to
> >    change the theme.  Unfortunately the theme capplet can't be used
> >    directly because it allows users to install new themes, a feature that
> >    shouldn't be available before login.
> >
> >    It would also be nice if the theme would stick when the user switches
> >    between the chooser/greeter programs.  Any suggestions regarding how
> >    this should be supported would be appreciated. 
>
> I am not sure what you mean by this.  Do you mean you want the changes to
> come into effect as soon as they log in?  That obviously being fine for a 
> theme, but not as simple for an X server restart.

Remember that it is important to support systems that may be shared by
multiple users, so gdm would probably normally have its default appearance
(it might be nice if users could specify a default gtk+ theme to use in
the gdm.conf file).  Then, if the user needs an accessible theme, then
the user could do something (navigate a menu, hit a hotkey or acelerator,
or use the "gesture listener" mechanism) to cause the theme to be changed.
Perhaps we only want to support changing to one of the accessible themes,
or  perhaps we want to support all available themes, I'm not sure which
makes more sense.

The greeter could communicate the "current theme" to the chooser via an
environment variable, or some other mechanism so that the chooser would
simply use the correct theme on startup.  Likewise it would be nice if
the greeter remembered its theme so that if the user goes to the Chooser
and then exits back to the Greeter, the theme is still the same.
It would be reasonable if gdm returned to the default theme each time a
user logs out.

Does this make sense?

--

Brian