[orca-list] F123.org-sponsored work and Request for input: Braille scrolling and when to route the caret

[Joanmarie Diggs <jdiggs igalia com>]

Hey all.

First some awesome news: F123.org is supporting work to improve Orca
around its support for WebKitGtk content. Some of this work will happen
in Orca; most will happen in WebKitGtk. And all of it will get us much
closer to web-browsing and email client solutions that JustWork(tm) and
are much more performant than what we currently have. So thank you
Fernando Botelho and F123.org!!

One of the things I am fixing on the Orca side of the equation is
braille scrolling of WebKitGtk content, and that brings me to my request
for input:

Currently, Orca's braille scrolling is in general incomplete and
inadequate, sometimes working and sometimes not. But when it is working
we are automatically moving the caret. I am seriously questioning if
this is what we want to do for the following reasons:

1. Scrolling in braille seems to me to be an awful lot like scrolling
   visually. In other words, if I am reading a document, I can leave the
   caret where it is and move the document's scrollbar to look visually
   before and after my current location and read the surrounding text.
   If I then want to move the caret to a new location, all I have to do
   is click with the mouse. But if I just wanted to look around and I do
   not click, the caret remains where it was. Shouldn't Orca work this
   way too, especially given the next item.

2. Three words: Cursor routing keys. As I am scrolling around via my
   braille display, all I have to do to reposition the caret is press
   the key associated with the cell of interest. This is actually easier
   than clicking with the mouse. Given that one can explicitly and
   easily update the caret position, wouldn't it make more sense to only
   move the caret when the user has indicated the caret should be moved?

3. Focus side effects: In the case of Web content, if we move the caret
   to a focusable object, there is an excellent chance we will also
   change the focused item. Changing focus without the user explicitly
   indicating focus should be changed strikes me as a bad idea.

Please let me know what you think about this and I shall proceed
accordingly.

Thanks in advance. Take care.
--joanie