[orca-list] Magnifier - a short wish list

["Bohdan R. Rau" <ethanak polip com>]

Hi,

after some months of daily using the magnifier (at work), I prepared
something like "wish list".

My configuration is probably not typical, but very usable (for me).

I have 1200 x 1600 20" monitor (the cheap model of Samsung with pivot).
Two Gnome panels are moved to top. Big 1200x900 area is left for for
normal view (I must see all screen even if I'm not able to read texts -
for example I must see web page layout, or I want to see the structure
of program code in editor). The rest (lower part of screen, about 1200 x
600) is for zoomer.

My wish list:

1) Orca should be possible to start with magnifier enabled and speech
enabled, but muted (not very important, but nice).

2) In magnifier mode I don't need plain review, I'd like to have
standard behavior of keypad. Especially I _must_ have KP_insert key
behaving as "insert" - it's very important in Midnight Commander!

In my opinion this behavior should be configurable:

a) always use Orca keys
b) never use Orca keys (leave only "insert" as Orca modifier)
c) disable Orca keypad when speech is muted
d) enable/disable Orca keypad with single keys combination (Orca
+something?)

I also do not need application-specific keys in magnifier-only mode
(especially I don't want Firefox-specific Orca keys), but I still want
to have this keys when speech is enabled.

3) Magnifier should be more friendly to inaccessible applications. There
should be something like "remote control", for example the application
must be able to move center of zoomer to specific position.

Due to some reasons I still use Nedit (I have many self-made scripts and
external apps wrote for Nedit, extended syntax highlighting patterns for
XUL-specific scripts, and I can't find any text editor similar to
Nedit). I can write script computing cursor position in current Nedit
window, so it would be nice to be able to move the zoomer to computed
coordinates...

Also there should be possible to move zoomer with specific offset in any
direction. In this case I could modify global Gnome keyboard and create
keys combination for "move left", "move right" etc.

4) There is a problem when the focus is moved several times very fast.
Magnifier moves the zoomer also several times but with some small delay,
and sometimes I can observe some seconds of crazy zoomer moving. For me
the behavior should be different:

If the move request comes too fast, magnifier should turn on something
like "delay mode". In this mode requests are not processed immediately
but with small delay. If next request comes while magnifier is in
"waiting" state, previous is discarded and delay timer resets. If the
delay time passes, magnifier should process the last request and exit
delay mode.

The delay sould be different for different request source (mouse,
cursor, focus) and configurable.

5) A next problem is when I'm writing something in editor, and mouse
accidentally moves with one-two steps (due to table vibrations or
something similar). If the last move request was not from mouse, there
should be some threshold value for processing mouse moving
(configurable).

6) All these "wishes" are for my configuration at work. At home I don't
use magnifier (I have 1024x768 monitor, enlarged font and speech
frequently turned on). I use FireVox (my private patched version, using
Ivona synthesizer with very simple server emulating Orca HTTP server)
for Polish web sites, and Orca speech when reading/writing texts in
Polish. But when writing program code or English emails it's absolutely
not comfortable solution.

There is a nice feature (braille display emulator) which would be useful
for me after some modifications: display should be able not to emulate
braille cells, but show normal text line with configurable position,
size, font and colors. The position of display also should be
configurable (for me the better position is below bottom Gnome panel). I
tried to use this feature, but reading separated letters is not very
comfortable, and the display sometimes hides below upper Gnome panel, or
hides the panel :(

I think the modification should be very simple...

And the last question:

Is there any magnifier user or I am alone? :)

Bohdan