[g-a-devel] proposing ATK/AT-SPI API additions

[Mike Gorse <mgorse novell com>]

Hi all,

I would like to propose a few additions to ATK and AT-SPI:

- In atk, the size and position of a window can be get or set.  Gail 
already has code implementing this for gtk widgets, but the functionality 
is currently not exposed over at-spi; there are methods to get the 
extents, size, and position of a window but no corresponding method to set 
them.  I propose to add setSize, setPosition, and setExtents methods 
to the at-spi Component interface.  The GAIL implementation of set_extents 
only affects top-level windows; it does nothing for all other widgets.

I also propose to add an atk function with the following prototype if no 
one objects / people think it makes sense:

gpointer atk_object_get_native_window_handle (AtkObject *accessible);

This would return a handle from the native windowing system for the given 
object, if available.  It may return NULL.

I have had a discussion with someone who is working on porting a macro 
language from Windows and requested this functionality.  Apparently it is 
possible with this package to change the title of a window, for instance, 
and this can be done under Windows but not through AT-SPI under Linux. 
Both of these additions would also help for the AT-SPI-to-UIA bridge, 
since UI Automation exposes functionality corresponding to what I am 
describing.  I am not really sure what I think of the 
get_native_window_handle bit, since it would allow a program to do things 
other than what an end user could do, so I am not sure if there are 
security implications.  Perhaps similar functionality is already available 
through X, though, in which case I don't think it would create significant 
security issues beyond what is already there.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks,
-Mike G-