Re: [orca-list] Table headers and coordinates in braille

[Jason White <jason jasonjgw net>]

On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 01:41:28PM +0200, Hermann wrote:
> I don't think that this is possible, since the braille display shows the 
> actual cell.

I couldn't find anything in the source code, but I didn't look thoroughly
due to other appointments this afternoon.
> > A question to other users: how, ideally, should tables be presented in
> > braille?
> >
> > I can think of various possibilities, but let's hear from others first.
>  
> One possibility is to create a "structured mode", known from Jaws. In this 
> case all the information of the actual cell is presented in one row on the 
> display. It should be possible to temporarily switch to that mode, or 
> activate it permanently in applications where it seems useful.

I would be interested in the opinions of others, but in general I don't like
the idea of having multiple modes. Instead, I would suggest the following:

Whenever table navigation commands are issued, display the cell contents in
braille, as now. If the previous line BRLTTY command is used, display the
headers and the line/column position. If the next line command is used while
displaying the headers, go back to the cell content.

If the focus is moved by a navigation command other than a table navigation
command, just display the cell content, on the basis that the user is
navigating the content as text that happens to be laid out in a table, not as
a table structure.

Mapping the table navigation commands to BRLTTY commands would also be
possible, so that the keyboard wouldn't need to be used.