[Kde-accessibility] Fwd: KDE 3.1 suggestion: gtkeyboard clone

[Peter Korn]

Hi JP,

>    Thank you Peter and Bill for the good explanations, sorry I was away 
> from e-mail when this thread started.  One particularly noteworthy
> statement is:
> 
> > Integrating KDE/Qt into the mix has been discussed before, and only 
> > awaits suitable committment of engineering resources, volunteer or
> > otherwise.
> 
> ...
> 
> Question:
> I agree that we should use GOK as the KDE onscreen keyboard.  Do you [all] 
> think we should simply link to the GOK page or should we link to it and
> write up some instructions for using it with KDE?
>  Alternatively (and I would argue, much less desirably) should we consider 
> making some modifications to GOK to make more tailored for KDE?

GOK is open source.  Thus you can always submit patches (for example to make
it have intimate specific knowledge of KDE/Qt in order to function there),
which may or may not be accepted.  You can also always fork your own version,
again with modifications to tie it specifically to KDE/Qt.

And, with all of the other AT being developed (e.g. Gnopernicus), you can
again do the same thing.  Arguably, this may be less immediate work than
having KDE/Qt support the open source accessibility infrastructure.


But... you'll be making the same mistake as has been made (and is still being
made) in the Windows world.  You will be tying specific AT to specific
apps/environments, creating a maintenance nightmare for yourself, and
creating massive testing headaches.  And, in the end, you will be doing a
disservice to the users because we know a better way.


Regards,


Peter Korn
Sun Accessibility team