Re: Orca 0.2.3

[Henrik Nilsen Omma <henrik ubuntu com>]

Janina Sajka wrote:
> Seems to me the browser based configuration tool which Tomas Cerha
> mentioned makes the most sense. Works across allenvironments--even
> remotely, if someone can log in.
>   
I think all the points raised so far speak in favour of having a 
flexible configuration that can support several front-ends with a 
single, unified back-end (and preferable with support for several AT apps).

Imagine this:

1. If you type 'orca-setup' at the command line, you get a text based 
setup util for orca, which will also give also give you easy access to 
configure the speech infrastructure, be it Speech Dispatcher or 
gnome-speech. gok-setup or ktts-setup would work the same way.

2. If you type at-setup you get the top level utility with menu choices 
for the different AT apps at the CLI, where one of the choices is 
'Orca', which then takes you to exactly the same setup util as above. 
Another choice might be 'Keyboard settings' which would take you to the 
keyboard settings in CLI mode.

3. If you are using Orca in Gnome and press Ctrl-Alt-SomeKey you get the 
Orca GUI, which gives you exactly the same settings options as #1, but 
displayed with GTK widgets instead of text. As in #1 the settings for 
the speech output are in sibling config utilities so they are easy to 
access.

4. If you go to System -> Preferences -> Assistive Technology in Gnome 
you get exactly the same choices as in #2, but in GUI form.

5. If you access these settings from within KDE you get the Qt 
front-end, using the very same back-end.

AFAIU the Orca team is now making the config code cleanly separated from 
the GUI, so this approach should be possible. It may sound complicated 
to provide all these different interfaces, but by sharing code between 
projects we also share the work load AND we and up with a more flexible 
and more tidy experience for the user.

I'm currently writing up a design spec for this idea here: 
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Accessibility/Specs/CommonATConfig and I've 
proposed it as a Google Summer of Code project: 
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GoogleSoC2006

The basic design spec should take shape over the next few weeks so this 
is a good time to float ideas.

- Henrik