Re: [orca-list] Another Suggestion for OpenOffice/Orca Improvement

[Peter Korn <Peter Korn Sun COM>]

Hi Janina,

OOo Writer has keyboard functionality for navigation by paragraph: 
Ctrl-Up/Down arrow.  Add shift to select.  For deleting lines, Home 
followed by shift up/down arrow will select lines you can then delete.

Not the same - and in many cases not as fast - as vi.  But in case you 
didn't already know about these...


Separately, I just took a "Hands on Lab" class at the recent JavaOne 
conference, where I learned about writing OpenOffice.org extensions - 
specifically Java using NetBeans.  One option for folks wanting more 
vi/emacs-style (or WordPerfect style, for that matter) keyboard gestures 
would be to write an OOo Writer extension to encapsulate just that 
functionality.  This should be a far easier task that trying to modify 
the actual OOo codebase itself.  I haven't dug into the details of 
making keyboard gesture modifications (the lab covered adding menu 
items, dialog boxes, file translators/converters, and adding smart 
tags), but it appears that most of the object model is exposed to 
extension writers.


Regards,

Peter Korn
Accessibility Architect,
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

> This suggestion may seem wacky, but I am most earnest. So, I articulate
> my thought here wondering whether I'm alone in my insanity.
>
> I would dearly love to "gene splice" OpenOffice && { vim | emacs }
>
> Since I've been a vim user mostly, I'll make my examples vim specific.
> But, the same would hold for emacs.
>
> Having now worked with Orca and OpenOffice (off and on) for the better
> part of a year, I still find myself hampered by the inherently
> mouse-oriented "highlight and click" nature of the editing process. I'm
> sure it's great for mouse users, but it's [expletive deleted] for me.
> Yes, I feel pretty strong about this.
>
> If I want to delete one, or maybbe 4 lines, I have to carefully
> highlight that block before deleting in OpenOffice. In vim I simply do
> d$, or dd, or d4d, depending.
>
> Please note the difference between vim's D$ and dd. Achieving that in
> OpenOffice requires care to include the end of line char in the
> highlighted block.
>
> There are many more examples, including many for which I don't believe
> OO provides real equivalents--such as vim's bookmarking 'm' capibility
> and all the functionality that goes along with it.
>
> The reason I have such strong feelings about this is that the
> operational difference ends up taking a very significant amount of time.
> If I could be convinced that I simply need to be more proficient with
> OO, I'd drop my argument then and there--but I don't believe that's the
> case. It's simply more efficient to drive editing the vim (or emacs) way
> if you have to do so from the keyboard. Am I wrong?
>
> Nor is ignoring OO and sticking with latec an option. I need to work
> with documents that come to me through the mail from others, and those
> will often by Ms Word (and increasingly OO).
>
> So, how possible is a vim-style overlay for OO? Clearly if it existed,
> it would need a command (vs. insert) mode--just like vim itself. Else,
> how would one insert 'dd' into a doc, as opposed to deleting a line?
> Fortunately, unlike Speakup which never gained the ability to identify
> command mode vs insert mode programmatically, Orca, could easily switch
> voices for that in speech, and probably find a suitable indicator in
> braille.
>
> So, am I alone in my pipeless dream? Have I completely lost my marbles?
>
> Janina
>
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