Re: techniques for author-defined UI controls

The User Agent doesn't need to know what the accelerator keys are, since the
User Agent defines them, and what they do. It needs to make it clear to the
user what happens, and how the remappings work.

Providing a passthrough mechanism is one approach, keeping a collection of
unused activations (for example keypresses) and assigning them to actions is
another.

I think Al's wording provides a technique for the general requirement that
User agents make all functionalities available.

Charles McCN

On Tue, 2 Nov 1999, Gregory J. Rosmaita wrote:

[snip]  
  to answer your questions, when i wrote:quote pass conflicting key combinations
  through to the UA unquote i meant a mechanism such as that employed by screen
  readers which tells the application quote ignore next input unquote so that if
  a screen reader command blocks a system or application command from being
  executed, one can invoke the pass through keystroke so that the system or
  application, and not the screen reader, receives the keyboard command, or vice
  versa, depending upon the AT being used and the situation...
  
  you also asked,
  quote:
  Would it suffice to say "When accelerator keys collide, the UA shall provide a
  way for the user to activate either action"?
  unquote
  
  i'm not sure that that's much clearer...  this is the cascade issue addressed
  ad nauseam in my past posts -- the UA needs to know, upon activation of the
  accelerator, to what it should apply the action bound to that keystroke --
  itself? the document currently being rendered?  the operating system?
  
  and in what order...  perhaps the fourth point could be worded thus:
  
  Provide a well-documented and consistent mechanism whereby conflicting
  accelerator key combinations can either be:passed directly to the user agent
  for the activation of an application or OS control, or used to activate the
  element for which they have been defined in the document currently being
  rendered.
  
  which may necessitate a fifth point:
  
  Provide a well-documented and consistent mechanism whereby conflicting
  accelerator key combinations can remapped by the UA. It is essential that the
  user be notified of any remappings.
  
  although that option could probably be appended to the fourth point, provided
  that the 3 options were listed in a bulleted or ordered list...  in any event,
  i'm sure that Ian can coalesce the idea far better than i...
  
  gregory
  --------------------------------------------------------
  He that lives on Hope, dies farting
       -- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1763
  --------------------------------------------------------
  Gregory J. Rosmaita <unagi69@concentric.net>
     WebMaster and Minister of Propaganda, VICUG NYC
          <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/index.html>
  --------------------------------------------------------
  

--Charles McCathieNevile            mailto:charles@w3.org
phone: +1 617 258 0992   http://www.w3.org/People/Charles
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative    http://www.w3.org/WAI
MIT/LCS  -  545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139,  USA

Received on Tuesday, 2 November 1999 17:41:44 UTC