Re: [orca-list] Alternatives to Mozilla based software

[Michael Whapples <mwhapples aim com>]

I guess the short answer about what isn't good about thunderbird would 
be to say its XUL based, so has all warts which come from XUL.

A bit more detail: In thunderbird 3.1.x the XUL version used gives 
additional window activated events, which makes orca loose focus if 
reading messages in a new window (I never got into tabs for email). When 
I filed a bug report about it, it was seen that it would not be possible 
to get a fix included in thunderbird 3.1.x. Upgrading to thunderbird 
3.3a1 and above has resolved that bug but introduced bugs such as the 
issue with wrong character being echoed when backspacing and orca being 
unaware or what text is being inserted into edit fields (eg. the input 
area for writing a message), so as I type orca does no echo of typed 
words (I have that echo setting on in orca) and Braille is not updated. 
Despite having filed a bug relating to the backspace issue and a fix 
being created for firefox, I am unsure whether that patch has been made 
to thunderbird and/or which version of thunderbird it will appear in.

I think that is probably more what is my dissatisfaction, the ability of 
Mozilla to respond to bugs relating to accessibility. It seems like for 
those of us who follow stable versions (may be trying beta versions and 
at times alpha builds) bugs are reported too late for Mozilla to get 
anything done for that stable branch of the product. Also the Mozilla 
requirement that when filing a bug you should only do it against a build 
less than two weeks old is very restrictive. I am sorry, if the stable 
builds have sufficient bugs to make me feel this way, why would I want 
to use something as my main browser or email client which Mozilla accept 
may not be anywhere near the quality of stable builds? As an example, in 
checking the firefox issue I mentioned yesterday, I tried a version of 
aurora but that has messed up a firefox settings file which now prevents 
firefox 4 loading, so cutting off my fallback option. Working the other 
way (IE. if I notice a bug in a release and then try a nightly build), 
this still leaves us in a position of catch up and we hit the issue I 
mentioned that normally once a release is made Mozilla don't seem to add 
accessibility fixes until the next major update.

That is probably enough of me going on, but I hope may be it gives you 
an idea why I am so sick of Mozilla stuff and want some alternatives. I 
will say, I do think its a shame as certain ways in which thunderbird 
works I do like, its just the state of the accessibility which has got 
me this way.

Michael Whapples
On -10/01/37 20:59, Luke Yelavich wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 04:44:13AM EST, Michael Whapples wrote:
> > So I am now wanting to move away from Mozilla based software, which
> > for me means finding another email client (evolution is one option
> > and I remember earlier this year there was a discussion on other
> > mail clients which I will look through) and also another browser. As
> > far as I know, webkit based browsers may have some promise at some
> > point. How is the webkit support coming along for orca? Beyond that,
> > I can only think of the text based browsers, which I admit I do
> > sometimes use, but just will not do all websites.
> What problems do you have with thunderbird? I am using Thunderbird for a few email accounts here, version 
> 3.1, and Orca 3, with no problems at all.
>
> Luke