RE: drawSystemFocusRing and drawCustomFocusRing names are confusing.

On Thurs, Jan 9, 2014 at 1:03 PM, Robert O'Callahan wrote:
> However, if the name ignores the accessibility side effects, we can expect authors to not set the correct path,
> since a path is not obviously needed. So I suggest we remove the version of the method that uses the current
> path, forcing authors to provide a Path parameter, and explain in prose what the Path parameter is for. Of
> course that would mean making this functionality depend on Path, but I think that's OK. This functionality
> seems less important than drawFocusIfNeeded.

I wonder if it’s worth considering Robert’s suggestion. If the drawFocusIfNeeded method always must take a path and element as parameters, the parameters may make it more clear that this method is (A) setting the fallback element’s accessibility region to the path, and the method name would make it clear that (B) it is drawing focus if needed. I found that many folks that I had discussed this API with were initially confused with how drawSystemFocusRing(element) worked because they didn’t realize the current path was mapping the accessibility region to the fallback element. Only specifying a drawFocusIfNeeded(path, element) may make the purpose of this API more clear.

Jatinder

From: rocallahan@gmail.com [mailto:rocallahan@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Robert O'Callahan
Sent: Thursday, January 9, 2014 1:03 PM
To: Jay Munro
Cc: Richard Schwerdtfeger; Alexander Surkov; Rik Cabanier (cabanier@adobe.com); Dominic Mazzoni; Jatinder Mann; Philippe Le Hegaret (plh@w3.org); Canvas
Subject: Re: drawSystemFocusRing and drawCustomFocusRing names are confusing.

I agree with jatinder. "drawFocus" suggests that it will always draw something, but that's wrong. The name "drawCustomFocusRing" is even worse since it never draws anything.

I think for the method that actually draws, "drawFocusIfNeeded" would be good.

For the other method, "needToDrawFocus" sounds good for the non-accessibility functionality. However, if the name ignores the accessibility side effects, we can expect authors to not set the correct path, since a path is not obviously needed. So I suggest we remove the version of the method that uses the current path, forcing authors to provide a Path parameter, and explain in prose what the Path parameter is for. Of course that would mean making this functionality depend on Path, but I think that's OK. This functionality seems less important than drawFocusIfNeeded. There is the possibility that authors will just supply a bogus Path anyway because they don't care about accessibility, but that's possible with any form of this API.
Rob
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