Re: Orca notification area and orca

[Joanmarie Diggs <joanmarie diggs carroll org>]

Hey Will.  

> default script will probably not announce it until you move to it.  I
> think the app showing it is "update-notifier", though, so one could
> potentially write a script to tell it to shout when it's doing something
> even if it doesn't have focus.  

In the $0.02 department, I think it would be worth doing and including
as an Orca feature.  Perhaps I shouldn't say that without being in a
position to volunteer to do the work -- and I'm not yet in such a
position. :( Learning Orca scripting is on my to-do list, so put me down
for something later. :)

> Now, the question becomes: even if we get it to shout, what can the user
> do?  We've at least let them know something is there, but it's dang
> frustrating if you can't use it.  :-(

Indeed.  BUT, I'd argue that you CAN use it -- or, rather, use the
information displayed in the notification bubble were it to shout:

1.  Sometimes as a user you don't need to do anything -- at least in
terms of the software, like with the battery/power notification on a
laptop.  You get notifications when you disconnect the power supply
(which you might do inadvertently while moving the computer), when your
battery is fully charged, and -- I suspect -- when it's getting
dangerously low.  Receiving these notifications is valuable and doesn't
require that the user access the notification area.

2.  Sometimes as a user, it would be cool to access the notification
area -- like when when the update notification bubble has appeared.  But
even if you can't (100% reliably) do that yet, having Orca
announce/display what needs doing means that you can react appropriately
-- like by running apt-get to install the updates.

3.  Once the panel issues are resolved, then you'll have yet another
option in response to the bubble. :)

> Be wary of gnome-panel as well.  There are cases were you can give it
> keyboard focus and never be able to leave it without having to use the
> mouse, regardless if Orca is running or not.  We need to dig into this a
> little more and file a bug against whomever it is that owns it. 

I have experienced that -- or something similar/related -- on occasion:
I was in theory moving to the top panel with Control Alt Tab, but all
the tabbing and arrowing from that point on did nothing.  I haven't
figured out why that happens yet and will pay better attention to see if
I can reliably reproduce it -- unless you already know the cases, but
not who owns it.

As for everything else in your detailed response, I *really* appreciate
your taking the time to provide those explanations.  I am, of course,
reading the docs and trying things out, but I'm finding this list to be
a great source of information while getting up to speed.

Thanks and take care.
Joanie