Re: Thoughts on magnification

[David Bolter <dtb gnome org>]

Hi Will,

Willie Walker wrote:
> Hi All:
>
> This is to follow up on the nice IRC discussion we had in IRC yesterday 
> regarding magnification.  I think the main points were:
>
> o The COMPOSITE extension opens the world for us to do lots and lots of 
> really cool manipulation of what's being displayed on the desktop.  This 
> goes well beyond bit zooming and lets us get into really neat and useful 
> stuff that can benefit a larger number of disabilities.
>   

Very true, and the work here can benefit everyone whether they consider 
themselves having a disability or not. I think the curb-cut effect is 
especially ripe here.

> o The architecture of the COMPOSITE extension seems to be that the most 
> effective use of it is if you are in the process of the thing acting as 
> the COMPOSITE manager.
>
> o As we see with Compiz and Metacity, people seem to be centering on the 
> window manager as the COMPOSITE manager.
>
> o We have a desire to for external processes (e.g., Orca
Yes, and another example (and I know you know this) is switch input and 
eye-gaze/head pointer type systems. I'm really looking forward to 
someone running with this... for example "scanning the desktop", as 
opposed to an OSK (on-screen keyboard). A few of us have talked about 
this for years; it would be great to see it happen. This case is 
somewhat tangential to your questions here though.
> ) to communicate 
> with features provided by the COMPOSITE manager, such as magnification.
>
> o We need to consider systems where COMPOSITE may not be available.
>   
How will we address this? Or will we?
> Given this, I think we agreed that the 'magnification' task is larger 
> than magnification.  Maybe we need to rename it something like CIMSITY 
> (COMPOSITE Interface for Magnification Services and other Interesting 
> TechnologY ;-)).  Given this, I think we also tended to agree that we 
> should create a growable API that starts off by supporting at least what 
> we need for magnification, but which will also eventually allow us to do 
> other really really cool stuff.  This API (most likely DBus based?) 
> would need to be supported by at least Metacity and ideally Metacity and 
> Compiz.
>
> Does that sound about right?
Yes.
>   If so, this still seems like a pretty 
> tractable problem that seems to fit well within the GNOME Outreach 
> Program and which also provides great support for a large number of 
> assistive technologies.
>
> What are your thoughts?
>
> Will
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