Re: key events spec - some issues I'd like to give some attention

Hi, Hallvord-

Thanks for your thoughtful summary.  Indeed, we have been talking about 
many of these topics during the telcons.

Hallvord R. M. Steen wrote (on 7/6/09 7:02 AM):
>
> On a high level, we're working on letting an app specify an
> association between an input (key event, accesskey etc.), a context
> (usually element, but also document/window and chrome like
> scrollbars) and an action (JavaScript function or a default action).
> Some of the associations also imply a description of the action (link
> text or title, element title).
>
> The problems I think we ought to try to address include:
>
> * Inconsistent legacy event support among UAs, "DOM0" events are
> underspecified
>* The web is full of inflexible character code-action
> mappings, causing bad accessibility from keyboards or devices that
> were not taken into account by the programmers
>* Accesskey might be a
> solution, but does not support multiple consecutive keys (like
> GMail's "gi" shortcut to load inbox), and need to be specified and
> implemented so that UAs can map actual existing keys rather than
> specified ones (this is done in HTML5)
>* UAs can not offer
> alternative activation for most event listeners because they are too
> generic and lack descriptions for UI. (Say if an app does
> document.addEventListener('keypress',..) to handle shortcuts - not
> granular enough to offer any kind of sensible description to show the
> user and ask "do you want do do x?")
>* The thorny UI issue of whether
> page shortcuts or UA shortcuts take preference. I know many of you
> will feel this is a UI/implementation issue - which is perfectly true
> - but it is important for UA accessibility to think about and offer
> some guidance for these dilemmas. Both configurability and a
> "cascading" model where more specific shortcuts can take preference
> over less specific ones are worth exploring.
>
> Then of course we have the issues I think you're already close to
> solving, like IME/virtual keyboard events, and more specific/granular
> events for editable content.
>
> There are probably more issues that fell off the table right now but
> will surface again.
>
> What I think I'd like to happen..
>
> * DOM0 Key Events Spec
>* Normative table of virtual key codes for legacy support
> even on non-Win32 platforms and devices..
> * DOM3 Key Events Spec w/IME events and all that

I think the sentiment currently is that we will simply add an appendix 
to model the "old way" of doing key events, as part of DOM3 Events.


> * Shortcut Mode Spec -
> triggering a mode where the client assigns shortcuts to
> elements/actions the page indicates should have shortcuts, or any
> "activatable" element if the page has no such indications. Like
> Opera's access key mode but more powerful. And with a normative
> spec.

I think the XHTML2 Access spec has a lot of potential to handle these 
things, but it needs a lot of work to get there.  I have suggested in 
the past that the @key be replaced with a mechanism that listens for 
DOM3 Events key identifiers, which I believe would be a clearer option; 
how the interaction between UA shortcuts and author-defined shortcuts 
would work is still an open question.  Now that the XHTML2 WG will be 
closing at year's end, it's not clear where the work on the Access spec 
will take place.


> Now, how do I start editing or helping out here?

The first and most concrete thing you (and everyone else interested) can 
do is to review the DOM3 Events spec and send in specific comments about 
things that need to be changed.  Proposed wording is welcome.


> One final word: since I work part-time, have small children and
> sometimes many things going on in life I don't guarantee a
> "heartbeat" response rate. Since apologies in advance if this will
> hurt the timeliness of mailing list discussions. I *will* get to
> things but not always quickly.

We are hoping to move DOM3 Events to Last Call within 2 or 3 months, so 
we do have a bit of a schedule to keep here.

Regards-
-Doug Schepers
W3C Team Contact, SVG and WebApps WGs

Received on Wednesday, 8 July 2009 18:49:17 UTC