[g-a-devel] Understanding ATK_STATE_TRANSIENT, ATK_STATE_STALE, ATK_STATE_DEFUNCT

[Aaron Leventhal <aaronlev moonset net>]

Both ATK and AT-SPI say -- STATE_TRANSIENT  Indicates this object is 
transient
-> Not sure what that means

My colleague Peter Parente says:
> i think stale occurs on transients which are left lying around, but 
> might be reused
> for instance, you empty an item in a tree temporarily, and then 
> repopulate it later
> usually accompanied by showing=False, visible=False I'd say
>  gaim does this I think, when buddies log in and out
>  the item for a buddy doesn't get deleted right away
>  if the buddy comes back on within a certain time period, the same 
> accessible is re-used for the person logging in
So do STALE and TRANSIENT always go hand in hand?
ATK says -- ATK_STATE_STALE    Indicates that the index associated with 
this object has changed since the user accessed the object.
STATE_STALE -- Indicates that the information returned for this object 
may no longer be synchronized with the application state. This can occur 
if the object has STATE_TRANSIENT, and can also occur towards the end of 
the object peer's lifecycle.
-> These definitions completely disagree and neither really explain it well

ATK says ATK_STATE_DEFUNCT  -- Indicates the user interface object 
corresponding to this object no longer exists
AT-SPI says STATE_DEFUNCT  -- Indicates that this object no longer has a 
valid backing widget (for instance, if its peer object has been destroyed)
-> These agree (although unfortunately use different wording), but I 
want to ask if a DEFUNCT object is also STALE.

Do we really need two separate states for DEFUNCT and STALE? I suppose 
we need to find out what STALE really means first, and if it's just part 
of some interesting architecture we can use with TRANSIENT. Do STALE and 
TRANSIENT always go together? Do those always go with MANAGESDESCENDANTS?

- Aaron