[orca-list] Orca now has preliminary support for object mode / non-layout mode. Yes. Really.

[Joanmarie Diggs <jdiggs igalia com>]

Hey all.

As a number of you have been requesting, I have just added preliminary
support for object mode, AKA not-layout mode, AKA behave as if links and
other objects were not on the same line even though they really are
mode. <smiles>

By "preliminary" I mean that it still needs polish, for instance, not
treating a checkbox and its label as if they were on separate lines. (Or
do you want those kept separate?) I also have questions like:

* What should Orca do when there is punctuation and whitespace in
  between two links? Are those three "lines" or just two?

* What should happen when you use structural navigation to move to a
  list item which consists of a number and a link? Technically the
  link is separate, but you also didn't down arrow; you pressed i.

Etc., etc., etc. But I figure that you can just try it with your
favorite sites and we can all discuss here what behaviors you'd like to
see changed.

The other thing it needs, I assume, are a GUI means to set it and
perhaps a keyboard command to toggle it. Because of the various freezes
GNOME is in, I cannot add those to the gnome-3-14 branch without
blessing from the localization team -- and in the case of a GUI option I
also need the release team to approve it. Note that this is not a
temporary situation: The configuration and command cannot go into GNOME
3.14 ever unless I get permission. I can of course add them to master
and will. But first:

1. Do we need both a GUI option and a command to toggle it, or just
   one or the other?

2. If we need a command to toggle it, any suggestions for the bindings?
   Orca+L for Layout or Orca+O for object would be great -- and are
   available in Desktop Layout. But then Laptop Layout would need a
   different command. Suggestions very much welcome.

3. Tell me honestly how important it is for the command and/or GUI
   option to ship as part of 3.14? Would it be sufficient if this is
   settable via orca-customizations.py for 3.14 and then all sorts of
   user-friendly-configurable in 3.16? The reason I ask is that I try
   really, really, really hard to not burden the localization team.
   Asking for a freeze break and for them to do additional work this
   close to the release strikes me as a burden. Plus even if I ask,
   they might still say "no."

Lastly, about how to try it in the meantime: Add the following lines to
your orca-customizations.py:

import orca.settings
orca.settings.layoutMode = False

As always, thanks in advance for your testing of this new support! In
the meantime, I'll keep working on the Great Orca Rewrite. <smiles>

--joanie