[orca-list] Evolution oddities

["nolan" <nolan thewordnerd info>]

I switched from Thunderbird to Evolution again. It seems much snappier,
particularly for navigating messages, and whereas some things such as
contacts and calendaring were fairly inaccessible in 2.24, I can now
access both somewhat reliably without needing to switch views or
anything not apparent. I'm experiencing some strangeness, though.

Normally I assign a new mail sound, but I'm finding that I don't need
one, because whether due to notify-osd in Ubuntu or something new in
GNOME 2.26, notifications are much chattier. At some point, however,
Evolution started speaking a row in the messages table on new mail
arrival. Not sure what the point of this is, as what it speaks isn't
indicatave of whatever mail just arrived. It seems to speak the table
row of the first message. Is there any way to disable this behavior so I
just hear the "Notification 2 new messages" from notify-osd? I don't
think this behavior existed initially, so I'm not sure why it appears
now. Does it have to do with where I leave the cursor in the main window
when tabbing away? I've tried ensuring that it isn't on the message
list, but this doesn't seem to change the behavior.

Possibly related to the above, I discovered an orca-N key combination
which, when pressed, speaks a rather confusing message. It toggles
between "present new mail if this script is not active" and "do not
present new mail if this script is not active." Am I the only one left
with head spinning? :) The double negatives in the latter message are
confusing, and does "present new mail if this script is not active"
imply that new mail is *not* presented if the script *is* active? I
checked the app-specific preferences, wondering if there was a checkbox
tied to this keystroke that might shed more light, but there wasn't.
I've also tried with both settings, and I'm still hearing the spurious
table row read out for any new mail.