Re: [orca-list] orca virtual window suggestion

[Joanmarie Diggs <joanmarie diggs gmail com>]

Hey guys.

I've been watching this discussion with interest.  I've always thought
it would be cool to be able to copy -- and/or append -- the contents
under flat review for later pasting.  And it seemed easy enough to do.
So I just filed an RFE in bugzilla:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=513764

And, better still <grin>, it took all of an hour to implement a first
pass at this.  I just attached a patch to the bug.

Given only one hour, I was not able to figure out two things:

1. How to copy/append the contents under flat review into the actual
   clipboard.  To be honest, I'm not sure that we should do that. If
   everyone feels really strongly that we should, I'll dig a bit deeper
   later.  Instead, I created a special Orca "flat review clipboard".

2. How to insert/paste text into a terminal.  Accessible objects which
   implement the editableText interface have an insertText() method.
   Objects which implement the terminal interface don't seem to have
   such an option.  I'll keep looking.

Here's what I did manage to do, however:

The patch gives you three new "unbound" keybindings:  

1. Copies the contents under flat review
2. Appends the contents under flat review
3. Pastes stored flat review contents

In order to use them, the first thing you need to do is bind them in the
Orca Preferences dialog.  Having done so, you should be able to flat
review to something and copy it or append it to our special new
clipboard.  When you're done, find an editable text area (I tested in
Gedit, OOo Writer, and Evolution so far) and paste it.

Important note.  Scratch that.  Really, really important note <smile>:
As I commented on the bug, "the new keybindings will get added to the
appropriate settings file (e.g. user-settings.py).  If you later reverse the
patch or check out a new version of Orca from trunk, Orca will see these
unfamiliar handlers and spit up.  We should probably do something about that. 
In the meantime, either backup your pre-patched user-settings.py or edit out
those bindings when you're finished testing this."

If you're familiar with applying patches and interested in this
functionality, please give the patch a spin and let me know what you
think.  If nothing else, it's a proof-of-concept upon which further
discussion can take place.

Thanks!
--Joanie