[Kde-accessibility] Re: [PATCH] select folder on timeout, after navigating to it

[Olaf Jan Schmidt]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

[Till Adam, So 25.01. 2004 11:00:11]
> On Sunday 25 January 2004 00:29, Ingo Klöcker wrote:
> > On Saturday 24 January 2004 22:49, Till Adam wrote:
> > > - ctrl-left/right navigates to a folder
> > > - timeout of 750 ms selects the folder, reset by ctrl-left/right
> > >
> > > That way one can navigate over several folders without selecting
> > > them, for speed reasons, while still getting the auto selection
> > > behavior that seems intuitive to me. Bruggie agrees, so it must be
> > > true.
> >
> > Hmm, sounds like a good idea. But what about accessibility?

As a general rule, timeouts for user input should either be avoided or 
must be configurable to ensure accessibility. But I think this case might 
be different - it really depends on how it is exactly implemented.

Would there be any problem if KMail selected each folder without any 
delay? If KMail is implemented in such a way that selecting a folder 
would not be a problem, then a delay of selecting does not hurt.

I can see two possible problems with selecting:

1. After the folder was selected, is it then still possible to move on 
selecting another folder using the same keystokes, just as if the folder 
was not selected? In other words: If a folder is selected, is the focus 
then moved to another part of the window, or will it stay the same?

2. Is it possible to move on while the folder is being selected, or will 
KMail not process keystrokes for a number of seconds until the folder is 
completely parsed and shown?

If selecting a folder means that KMail is unresponsive for a couple of 
seconds, then the user might hit the Move-Folder-Down key several times, 
thinking KMail "forgot" the keystrokes, thereby jumping to a folder below 
the one she wanted to access. If KMail is written in a way that moving 
the folder is still possible while the folder content is being parsed, I 
do not see a problem.

> > The problem is that we would have to make it configurable because of
> > accessibility reasons.
>
> Would it be sufficient for accessibility if it is a config option
> without a gui?

Having a config option without GUI would be bad for accessibility. The 
problem with every config options is that people who need it must know 
that it exists in order to be able to use it. I would strongly prefer a 
solution where no new option is needed.

Olaf

- -- 
Olaf Jan Schmidt, KDE Accessibility Project
KDEAP co-maintainer, maintainer of http://accessibility.kde.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iEYEARECAAYFAkAVAksACgkQoLYC8AehV8fhSgCeOXi7HBwYEPSW8LUpHFyv9Juj
Ue4An0cDJ3AE2sPjqybtD9pz5+7CbgTR
=+k5a
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----