Keyboard layout editor UI concept
(click for bigger image)
At the top we select the keyboard layout file, the variant, and set the corresponding verbose name.
The keyboard layout editor shows a standard keyboard, where each keyboard key can show up to four levels. When you select a key, the bottor-left window shows the characters that have been set (here we use four levels). In this bottom-left window we can drag and drop characters (from Unicode blocks) and dead keys that are found from the right of the image. Dead keys are shown in red boxes.
The user is also able to include existing keyboard layout files in the current layout.
At this stage I am thinking how to easily draw the keyboard in a PyGTK application. It would be important not to draw it manually. It would be cool to have a GTK+ keyboard key widget, that you can specify the size, and the text that appears on it, then build a keyboard in Glade. Another option would be to have the basic keyboard as an SVG file (already exists), then draw over it with Cairo. I am inclined for the second option.
Ένδοξη ιστορία και MS-OOXML
Ο ελληνισμός έχει μεγάλη ιστορία με αποτέλεσμα να υπάρχουν μεγάλες προσδοκίες στις σύγχρονες εξελίξεις.
Ας αντιπαραβάλουμε μια σύγχρονη ιστορία από κάπου από την Ασία με τα τεκταινόμενα σε Ελλάδα και Κύπρο, σχετικά με την διαδικασία ψήφισης υπέρ ή κατά του λεγόμενου MS-OOXML ως διεθνές πρότυπο ISO για έγγραφα γραφείου. Η διαδικασία αυτή θα ολοκληρωθεί στις επόμενες μέρες, και αν δεν κάνουν κάτι Ελλάδα και Κύπρος, τότε θα καταλογιστεί ψήφος υπέρ, κάτι που θα είναι επιζήμιο στα εθνικά μας συμφέροντα (PDF). Το MS-OOXML, στην παρούσα μορφή, δεν είναι χρησιμοποιήσιμο από τρίτους κατασκευαστές για να φτιάξουν εφάμιλλα προϊόντα.
Δείτε την πορεία του MS-OOXML προς το ISO.
Γυρίζοντας στην αρχική αντιπαραβολή, στη Μαλαισία λοιπόν, έγινε πριν από μια εβδομάδα μια συνάντηση του τοπικού συνδέσμου επιχειρήσεων και βιομηχανιών (σχεδόν αντίστοιχο του ελληνικού ΣΕΒ) για συζήτηση περί του MS-OOXML, για να βοηθηθεί ο αντίστοιχος ΕΛΟΤ στη τελική του συνάντηση που θα γινόταν λίγες μέρες αργότερα. Στη συνάντηση αυτή (του συνδέσμου) δεν κάλεσαν για κάποιο παράξενο λόγο το βασικό άτομο που έκανε αρκετή δουλειά για τον τοπικό ΕΛΟΤ της χώρας, αν και ήταν το άτομο που πήγε στη Γενεύη για να εκπροσωπίσει τη χώρα. Η αφορμή ήταν ότι το συγκεκρινένο άτομο δεν ήταν μέλος του συνδέσμου επιχειρήσεων. Για κάποιο παράξενο λόγο, στη συνάντηση αυτή προσκλήθηκαν υψηλόβαθμα άτομα από τη Microsoft (ΗΠΑ).
Μετά από αυτό το συμβάν, υπήρξε ένας ιστολογικός διαπληκτισμός, με ένα, δύο, τρία άρθρα.
Μετά από δυο μέρες (από αυτό που έγινε στο αντίστοιχο ΣΕΒ) ,έγινε η συνάντηση του τοπικού αντίστοιχού ΕΛΟΤ, με παράγοντες από τοπικούς οργανισμούς και αυστηρή απαγόρευση σε εμπορικούς παράγοντες (όπως εταιρίες πληροφορικής). Το αποτέλεσμα της συνάντησης ήταν για την αποφάσιση για την τελική θέση της χώρας ως προς την ψήφιση.
Στην συνάντηση αυτή εμφανίστηκε και ο υψηλόβαθμος παράγοντας από την Μάικροσοφτ (ΗΠΑ). Για να δικαιολογηθεί η παρουσία του (δεν είναι ντόπιος), ορίστηκε (σε μια νύχτα;) ως εκπρόσωπος της Μαλαισίας για ένα μη-κερδοσκοπικό οργανισμό που ονομάζεται IASA. Εδώ υπάρχει το ερώτημα αν ο οργανισμός αυτός είναι όπως και άλλοι τέτοιοι φαινομενικά ουδέτεροι μη-κερδοσκοπικοί οργανισμοί που στόχο έχουν να προάγουν τα συμφέροντα συγκεκριμένων εταιριών δίχως να γίνονται αντιληπτοί. Παραπάνω φαίνεται η κάρτα που έφτιαξαν για την περίσταση (το άτομο αυτό δεν έχει σχέση με τη χώρα).
Η επιτροπή της χώρας αυτής δεν ενέδωσε, και ολοκλήρωσε το έργο της όπως έπρεπε, για το συμφέρον της χώρας (τους).
Όμως, το υψηλόβαθμο στέλεχος της Μάικροσοφτ (ΗΠΑ) δεν το έβαλε κάτω, και έκανε απεγνωσμένες εγγραφές ιστολογίου για να δικαιολογήσει τα αδικαιολόγητα. Μπορείτε να δείτε όλη την συζήτηση από ένα, δύο, τρία, τέσσερα. Γενικά, καλό είναι να διαβάζετε openmalaysiablog.com.
Η πορεία του MS-OOXML προς το ISO
Συνοπτικά, η διαδικασία για να κάνει κάποιος ένα πρότυπο ISO είναι: Αποφασίζεις αν θέλεις τη γρήγορη διαδικασία (fast-track process) ή την κανονική διαδικασία. Κάποιος επιλέγει τη γρήγορη διαδικασία αν γνωρίζει ότι το υποψήφιο πρότυπο είναι έτοιμο και δεν χρειάζεται σημαντικές διορθώσεις. Για το MS-OOXML (Μάικροσοφτ Office Open XML), έγινε επιλογή της γρήγορης διαδικασίας, που από την αρχή ήταν παράξενο διότι ως υποψήφιο πρότυπο περιλάμβανε περισσότερες από 6.000 σελίδες, κάτι που δεν είναι τυπικό σε πρότυπα ISΟ και τη γρήγορη διαδικασία. Ακόμα, ως κείμενο προτύπου, παράχθηκε πολύ γρήγορα (<ένα χρόνο;) που είναι ακόμα πιο παράξενο. Αντίθετα από άλλα υποψήφια πρότυπα, η δημιουργία του έγινε από την ίδια την Microsoft δίχως εξωτερική επίβλεψη/συμμετοχή.
Σύμφωνα με τη γρήγορη διασικασία, αφήνεις 6 μήνες για τις χώρες μέλη της σχετικής επιτροπής του ISO για να μελετήσουν το υποψήφιο πρότυπο και να κάνουν σχόλια. Στο τέλος των 6 μηνών, θα γίνει μια πρώτη ψήφιση, για το αν θα γίνει έγκριση όπως είναι, ή θα χρειαστούν διορθώσεις. Σε αυτό το σημείο οι χώρες στέλνουν σχόλια για βελτιώσεις, αν υπάρχουν. Η ψήφιση αυτή έγινε το περασμένο Σεπτέμβριο (2007) και για μικρή διαφορά ψήφων, το MS-OOXML δεν πήρε την απαιτούμενη πλειοψηφία κατά τους κανονισμούς του ISO.
Μικρή διαφορά; Δηλαδή το MS-OOXML δεν τα πήγε τόσο άσχημα; Στα τέλη Αυγούστου 2007 συνέβει κάτι πρωτόγνωρο στην επιτροπή εκείνη που έχει να κάνει με το MS-OOXML. Πολλές χώρες έκαναν αίτηση και εγκρίθηκαν να γίνουν μέλη, για να ψηφίσουν για το υποψήφιο πρότυπο. Εξωτικές χώρες όπως η Ακτή Ελεφαντοστού, Τζαμάικα, Τρινιντάδ και Τομπάγκο έγιναν μέλη μια βδομάδα πριν την ψήφιση. Μία από τις χώρες αυτές, που έγιναν μέλη την τελευταία στιγμή λίγο πριν την ψήφιση, ήταν και η Κύπρος. Και αυτές οι χώρες ψήφισαν Ναι στο MS-OOXML, χωρίς να μπουν στο κόπο να στείλουν σχόλια.
Αυτό που συνέβει είναι ότι υπάρχουν χώρες που δεν έχουν τη δυνατότητα ή τους πόρους να αναθέσουν σε τοπικούς φορείς να μελετήσουν το υποψήφιο πρότυπο, κάτι που έχει να κάνει με το εθνικό τους συμφέρον. Οπότε, τοπικοί αντιπρόσωποι της Microsoft στις μικρές αυτές χώρες είναι πιθανό να παίρνουν γραμμή από ψηλά να πάνε και να ψηφίσουν για το συμφέρον της εταιρίας. Το να συμβεί κάτι τέτοιο σε μια φτωχή αναπτυσσόμενη χώρα δεν αποτελεί έκπληξη. Αλλά και στην Κύπρο;
Από το Σεπτέβριο 2007 οδηγούμαστε στο Φεβρουάριο 2008 όπου στο διάστημα αυτό έπρεπε να απαντηθούν τα σχόλια και παρατηρήσεις που έγιναν στην πρώτη ψήφιση. Το Φεβρουάριο λοιπόν, αντιπρόσωποι από τις χώρες της τεχνική επιτροπής συγκεντρώθηκαν στη Γενεύη για μια βδομάδα, για να συζητήσουν τις διορθώσεις (περισσότερες από 1.000 παρατηρήσεις σε 5 εργάσιμες μέρες). Ο στόχος της συνάντησης αυτής (Ballot Resolution Meeting, BRM) ήταν να συμφωνηθούν οι διορθώσεις ώστε ένα μήνα αργότερα να είναι σε θέση οι χώρες να ψηφίσουν για την τελική τους θέση.
Η πληθώρα των παρατηρήσεων και προβλημάτων στο υποψήφιο πρότυπο είχε ως αποτέλεσμα να μην λυθούν τα προβλήματα. Η συνάντηση στη Γενεύη ήταν πολύ προβληματική, ελληνική άποψη, τρίτη χώρα.
Τώρα λοιπόν οδηγούμαστε στην κρίσιμη εβδομάδα που οι χώρες μέλη της ομάδας αυτής του ISO έρχονται να ψηφίσουν υπέρ ή κατά του υποψήφιου MS-OOXML.
Η Ελλάδα ψήφισε το Σεπτέμβριο Yes, with comments και η Κύπρος ψήφισε Yes. Αν δεν κάνουν νέα ενέργεια, θα καταλογιστεί η παλαιότερη ψήφος.
Για την αλλαγή της θέσης, υπάρχουν πληροφορίες στο groklaw.
Γιατί άραγε να θέλει η Μάικροσοφτ να περάσει ντε και καλά το MS-OOXML;
Localisation issues in home directory folders (xdg-user-dirs)
In new distributions such as Ubuntu 7.10 there is now support for folder names of personal data in your local language. What this means is that ~/Desktop can now be called ~/Επιφάνεια εργασίας. You also get a few more default folders, including ~/Music, ~/Documents, ~/Pictures and so on.
This functionality of localised home folders has become available thanks to a new FreeDesktop standard, XDG-USER-DIRS. xdg-user-dirs can be localised, and the current localisations are available at xdg-user-dirs/po.
A potential issue arises when a user logs in with different locales; how does the system switch between the localised versions of the folder names? For GNOME there is a migration tool; as soon as you login into your account with a different locale, the system will prompt whether you wish to switch the names from one language to another. This is available through the xdg-user-dirs-gtk application.
Another issue is with users who use the command line quite often; switching between two languages (for those languages that use a script other than latin) tends to become cumbersome, especially if you have not setup your shell for intelligent completion. In addition, when you connect remotely using SSH, you may not be able to type in the local language at the initial computer which would make work very annoying.
Furthermore, there have been reports with KDE applications not working; if someone can bug report it and post the link it would be great. The impression I got was that some installations of KDE did not read off the filesystem in UTF-8 but in a legacy 8-bit encoding. This requires further investigation.
Moreover, OpenOffice.org requires some integration work to follow the xdg-user-dirs standard; apparently it has its own option as to which folder it will save into any newly created files. I believe this will be resolved in the near future.
Now, if we just installed Ubuntu 7.10 or Fedora 8, and we got, by default, localised subfolders in our home directory (which we may not prefer), what can we do to revert to non-localised folders?
The lazy way is to logout, choose an English locale as the default locale for the system and log in. You will be presented with the xdg-user-dirs-gtk migration tool (shown above) that will give you the option to switch to English folder names for those personal folders.
Clarification: It is implied for this workaround (logout and login thing), you then log out again, set the language to the localised one (i.e. Greek) and log in. This time, when the system asks to rename the personal folders, you simply answer no, and you end up with a localised desktop but personal folders in English. Mission really accomplished.
If you are of the tinkering type, the files to change manually are
$ cat ~/.config/user-dirs.locale
el_GR
$
and
$ cat ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs
# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you’re
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR=”$HOME/yyy”, where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR=”/yyy”, where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
#
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR=”$HOME/Επιφάνεια εργασίας”
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR=”$HOME/Επιφάνεια εργασίας”
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR=”$HOME/Πρότυπα”
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR=”$HOME/δημόσιο”
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR=”$HOME/Έγγραφα”
XDG_MUSIC_DIR=”$HOME/Μουσική”
XDG_PICTURES_DIR=”$HOME/Εικόνες”
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR=”$HOME/Βίντεο”
Personally I believe that having localised names appear under the home folder is good for the majority of users, as they will be able to match what is shown in Locations with the actual names on the filesystem.
There will be cases that software has to be updated and bugs fixed (such as in backup tools). As we proceed with more advanced internationalisation/localisation support in Linux, it is desirable to follow forward, and fix problematic software.
However, if enough popular support arises with clear arguments (am referring to Greek-speaking users and a current discussion) for default folder names in the English languages, we could follow the popular demand.
Also see the relevant blog post New Dirs in Gutsy: Documents, Music, Pictures, Blah, Blah by Moving to Freedom.
Vote NO with comments (on DIS 29500 / OOXML)
- Vote “No, with comments,” which is the JTC1-prescribed way of indicating “conditional approval” (JTC1 Directives (DOC, pops), Section 9.8)
- Recommend that OOXML be resubmitted as normal working item in JTC1/SC34:
- Split into a multi part standard: WordProcessingML, SpreadsheetML, DrawingML, Office Open Math Markup, VML, etc.
- Have each part progress independently, at its own speed, within normal ISO processing stages
- Encourage participation from OASIS to identify opportunities for harmonization with existing ISO 26300 “ODF”
- OOXML, as the default format in MS Office, is important. But as a standard it is full of inconsistencies, omissions, inaccuracies and errors. No standard is perfect, but OOXML, in its current state, does even not meet the minimum requirements.
source: Rob Weir‘s presentation slides, last slide (pdf)
OOXML is being rushed to become an ISO standard using the fast-track process. This is not good. As end-users we want real commodity document formats that are easy to implement and do not tie us to a specific office suite. Sadly, the purpose of rushing to standardise OOXML is simply to avoid letting it become a commodity document format. By letting OOXML become an ISO standard as it is now, a few companies get to gain a lot, but we are going to lose.
Spread the word.
I copy below the voting country list.
According to Rob Weir, all countries can cast a vote on this; sorry for this misinformation.
The voting countries (Participating countries) are (the list is being updated, please see Participating countries for new list)
In addition, the following countries have observer status (Observer countries), (the list is being updated, please see Observer countries for new list)
The observer countries, though the cannot vote, they can submit comments.
Cannot write Greek Polytonic in Linux
For up to date instructions for Greek and Greek Polytonic see How to type Greek, Greek Polytonic in Linux.
The following text is kept for historical purposes. Greek and Greek Polytonic now works in Linux, using the default Greek layout.
General Update: If you have Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 10 or a similarly new distribution, then Greek Polytonic works out-of-the-box. Simply select the Greek Polytonic layout. For more information, see the recent Greek Polytonic post.
Update 3rd May 2008: If you have Ubuntu 8.04 (probably applies to other recent Linux distributions as well), you simply need to add GTK_IM_MODULE=xim to /etc/environment. Start a Terminal (Applications/Accessories/Terminal) and type the commands (the first command makes a backup copy of the configuration file, and the second opens the configuration file with administrative priviliges, so that you can edit and save):
$ gksudo cp /etc/environment /etc/environment.ORIGINAL
$ gksudo gedit /etc/environment
then append
GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
save, and restart your computer. It should work now. Try to test with the standard Text editor, found in Accessories.
In Ubuntu 8.10 (autumn 2008), it should work out of the box, just by enabling the Greek Polytonic layout.
Update 20th June 2008: If still some accents/breathings/aspirations do not work, then this is probably related to your system locale (whether it is Greek or not). It works better when it is Greek. If you are affected and you do not use the Greek locale, there is one more thing to do.
$ gksudo cp /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose.ORIGINAL
$ gksudo cp /usr/share/X11/locale/el_GR.UTF-8/Compose /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose
The first command makes a backup copy of your original en_US Compose file (assuming you run an English locale; if in doubt, read /usr/share/X11/locale/locale.dir). The second command copies the Greek compose file over the English one. You then logout and login again.
End of updates
To write Greek Polytonic in Linux, a special file is used, which is called the compose file. There is a bit of complication here in the sense that the compose file depends on the current system locale.
To find out which compose file is active on your system, have a look at
/usr/share/X11/locale/compose.dir
Let’s assume your system locale is en_US.UTF-8 (Start Applications/Accessories/Terminal and type locale).
In the compose.dir file it says
en_US.UTF-8/Compose: en_US.UTF-8
Note that the locale is the second field. If you have a different system locale, match on the second field. Many people make a mistake here. Actually, I think be faster for the system to locate the entry if the compose.dir file was sorted by locale.
Therefore, the compose file is
/usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose
So, what’s the problem then?
Well, for the Greek locale (el_GR.UTF-8) we have a different compose file, a compose file in which Greek Polytonic actually works 
.
Therefore, there are numerous workarounds here to get Greek Polytonic working.
For example,
- If you speak modern Greek, you can install the Greek locale.
- You can edit /usr/share/X11/locale/compose.dir so that for your locale, the compose file is the Greek one, /usr/share/X11/locale/el_GR.UTF-8/Compose.
- You can edit the Greek compose file, take the Greek Polytonic section and update the Greek Polytonic section of en_US.UTF-8/Compose.
- You can copy the Greek compose file in your home directory under the name .XCompose. I did not try this one, and also you may be affected by this bug. (not tested)
Of course the proper solution is to update en_US.UTF-8/Compose with the updated Greek Polytonic compose sequences. There is a tendency to add the compose sequences of all languages to en_US.UTF-8/Compose, and this actually is happening now. In this respect, it would make sense to rename en_US.UTF-8/Compose into something like general/Compose.
OOXML voting process and controversy
By the end of this month, the ITC 1/SC 34 Technical Committee (ISO) will be voting on whether to accept or not OOXML as an ISO standard.
The voting countries (Participating countries) are
In addition, the following countries have observer status (Observer countries),
The observer countries, though the cannot vote, they can submit comments.
The current stage that OOXML is at, is 40.20, which means is the period that leads to the voting whether to accept or not as an ISO standard.
This proposed document format is controversial because an existing document format exists, the OpenDocument document format, ISO/IEC 26300, Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0, since 2006.
OOXML is a controversial document format. Read more on this regarding OOXML.
In addition, see the Technical White Paper on OpenDocument and OOXML by the ODF Alliance UK Action Group. Another whitepaper, ODF/OOXML technical white paper by Edward Macnaghten.
Open Malaysia is also valuable resource (includes blog contributions relating to open standards). For example, in spreadsheets in OOXML one cannot write dates before the 1st March 1900!
Finally, Achieving Openness: A Closer Look at ODF and OOXML by Sam Hiser.
Update #1: Microsoft is Outmuscling OOXML Opposition in Spain
Update #2: It is important to vote NO rather than abstain. It is sad that Spain decided to abstain rather than voting NO. UPDATE: Spain is an observer, thus cannot cast a vote. Somewhat lost en la traduccion.
Update #3: Czech comments on OOXML.
GUADEC Day #2
(see http://www.guadec.org/schedule/warmup)
At the first presentation, Quim Gil talked about GNOME marketing, what have been done, what is the goal of marketing. He showed a focused mind on important marketing tasks; it is easy to get carried away and not be effective, a mistake that happens in several projects.
The next session was by Tomas Frydrych (Open Hand – I have their sticker on my laptop!) on memory use in GNOME applications. Many people complain that XYZ is bloated. However, this does not convey what exactly happens; pretty useless. In addition, the common tools that show memory use do not show the proper picture because of the memory management techniques. That is, due to shared libraries, the total memory occupied by an application appears very big. A tool examined is exmap. This tool uses a kernel module that shows memory use of applications by reading in /proc. It takes a snapshot of memory use; it’s not real-time info. It comes with a GTK+ front-end (gexmap) that requires a big screen (oops, PDAs). However, it is not suitable for internet tablets and other low-spec devices. Therefore, they came up with exmap-console which addresses the shortcommings. It has a console interface based on the readline library.
Here are the rest of my notes. Hope they make sense to you.
. exmap –interactive
. ?: help
. Head: quite useful (dynamic allocation)
. Mapped:
. Sole use: memory that app is using on its own (rss?)
. “sort vm”
. “print” or “p”
. “add nautilus”
. “clear”
. “detail file” (what executables/libs loaded and how much consume)
. “detail none”Sole use
. valgrind, to analyse Sole Use memory?
. “detail ????”Lots of small libraries: overhead
Looking ahead
. Pagemap: by Matt Macall
. http://projects.o-hand.com/exmap-console/Python
. Sole use: ~18MB ;-(
Tomas was apparently running Ubuntu with the English UK locale. The English UK translation team is doing an amazing job at the translation stats. Actually, most messages are copied, however with a script one can pick up words such as organization and change to organisation. The problem here is that, for example, the GAIM mo file is 215KB (?), however for the British English translation the actual changes should be less than 2-3KB. Messages that are missing from a translation mean that the original US English messages will be used. I’ll have to find how to use msgfilter to make messages untranslated if msgid == msgstr. Where is Danilo?
After lunch time (did not go for lunch), I went to the Accerciser session. Pretty cool tool, something I have been look for. Accerciser uses the accessibility framework of GNOME in order to inspect the windows of running applications and see into the properties. A good use is to identify if elements such as text boxes come with description labels; they are important to be there for accessibility purposes (screen reader), as a person that depends on software to read (text to speech) the contents of windows.
The next session was GNOME accessibility for blind people. Jan Buchal gave an excellent presentation.
My notes,
. is from Chech republic, is blind himself. has been using computers for 20+ years
. from user perspective
. users, regular and irregular
. software
. firefox 3.0beta – ok for accessibility other versions no
. gaim messenger ok
. openoffice.org ok but did not try
. orca screenreader ^^^ works ok.
. generally ready for prime time
. ubuntu guy for accessibility was there
. made joke about not having/needing display slides ;-]
. synthesizer: festival, espeak, etc – can choose
. availability of voices
. javascript: not good for accessibility
. links/w3m: just fine!
. firefox3 makes accessibility now possible.
. web designer education, things like title=”", alt=”" for images.
. OOo, not installed but should work, ooo-gnome
. “braillcom” company name
. “speech dispatcher”
. logical events
. have short sound event instead of “button”, “input form”
. another special sound for emacs prompt, etc.
. uses emacs
. have all events spoken, such as application crashing.
. problems of accessibility
. not money main factor, but still exists.
. standard developers do not use accessibility functions
. “accessor” talk, can help
. small developer group on accessiblity, may not cooperate well
. non-regular users (such as blind musician)
. musicians
. project “singing computer”
. gtk, did not have good infrastructure
. used lilypond (music typesetter, good but not simple to use)
. singing mode in festival
. use emacs with special mode to write music scores (?)
. write music score and have the computer sing it (this is not “caruso”)
. gnome interface for lilypond would be interesting
. chemistry for blind
. gtk+
. considering it
. must also work, unfortunately, on windows
. gtk+ for windows, not so good for accessibility
. conclusion: free accessibility
. need users so that applications can be improved
. have festival synthesizer, not perfect but usable
. many languages, hindi, finnish, afrikaans
. endinburgh project, to reimplement festival better
. proprietary software is a disadvantage
. q: how do you learn to use new software?
. a: has been a computer user for 20+ years, is not good candidate to say
. a: if you are dedicated, you can bypass hardles, old lady emacs/festival/lilypond
. brrlcom, not for end-users(?)
. developer problem?
. generally there is lack of documentation; easy to teach what a developer needs to know
. so that the application is accessible
. HIG Human Interface Guidelines, accessible to the developers
. “speakup” project
. Willy, from Sun microsystems, working on accessibility for +20 years, Lead of Orca.
. developers: feel accessibility is a hindrance to development
. in practice the gap is not huge
. get tools (glade) and gtk+ to come with accessibility on by default
. accessibility
. is not only for people with disabilities
. can do amazing things like 3d interfaces something
These summaries are an important example of the rule that during presentation, participants tend to remember only about 8% of the material. In some examples, even less is being recollected.
Say No to OOXML
Click on the image above to visit the petition page.
I copy here the terms of the petition to say no on the standardisation of MSOOXML at ISO.
I ask the national members of ISO to vote “NO” in the ballot of ISO DIS 29500 (Office OpenXML or OOXML format) for the following reasons:
- There is already a standard ISO26300 named Open Document Format (ODF): a dual standard adds costs, uncertainty and confusion to industry, government and citizens;
- There is no provable implementation of the OOXML specification: Microsoft Office 2007 produces a special version of OOXML, not a file format which complies with the OOXML specification;
- There is missing information from the specification document, for example how to do a autoSpaceLikeWord95 or useWord97LineBreakRules;
- More than 10% of the examples mentioned in the proposed standard do not validate as XML;
- There is no guarantee that anybody can write a software that fully or partially implements the OOXML specification without being liable to patent damages or patent license fees by Microsoft;
- This standard proposal conflicts with other ISO standards, such as ISO 8601 (Representation of dates and times), ISO 639 (Codes for the Representation of Names and Languages) or ISO/IEC 10118-3 (cryptographic hash);
- There is a bug in the spreadsheet file format which forbids to enter any date before the year 1900: such bugs affects the OOXML specification as well as software versions such as Microsoft Excel 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007.
- This standard proposal has not been created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties (such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators), but by Microsoft alone.
This project is an initiative by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), the non-profit that helped achieve the rejection of the EU software patent directive in July 2005.
Update #1: Currently (26Jun07 – noon) there are 8805 signatures.
Update #2: Currently (26Jun07 – evening) there are 9481 signatures.
Update #3:
IT IS URGENT THAT YOU CONTACT YOUR STANDARDISATION BODY IN YOUR COUNTRY AND EXPLAIN THEM WHY OOXML IS BROKEN; SENDING A NICE LETTER TO YOUR STANDARDISATION BODY IN YOUR COUNTRY IS MORE IMPORTANT THEN SIGNING THE PETITION
Unicode Fonts for Ancient Scripts
George Douros created a set of Unicode fonts that cover the part of the Unicode standard for ancient scripts and symbols.
Linear B Ideograms; Ιδεογράμματα Γραμμικής Β
Ancient Greek numbers; Αρχαίοι ελληνικοί αριθμοί
Click here to see more screenshots on
the Ancient fonts gallery.
Firefox shortcuts in Linux on non-us keyboard layout, and Greek
You tried to use the common keyboard shortcuts in the Linux version of Firefox, with a keyboard layout other than us, and you realised they do not work. For example, Ctrl-C does not work when the Greek keyboard layout is active because Firefox receives Ctrl-Ψ (which is undefined).
This is a well-known problem affecting keyboard shortcuts in many languages.
How can someone solve the problem; Should Firefox for Linux be configured so that internally it would consider Ctrl-C and Ctrl-Ψ correspond to the same keyboard shortcut (perhaps in the language pack)? Well, the problem is that one would prefer a solution that is independent of the keyboard layout. You might be running a Greek localisation of Firefox with an active layout for Hindi.
The optimal solution is to have Firefox associate the keyboard shortcuts to physical keys (whatever that means) instead of the characters they are producing. Bug #69230/Mozilla has been there for quite some time although an acceptable solution is available in both GTK+ (GNOME) and OpenOffice.org. For example, in a GNOME application, both Ctrl-C and Ctrl-Ψ are equivalent.
So, what can we do now with the Linux versions of Firefox? Well, it is possible to write a Firefox extension that would intercept keys being pressed in a local layout and convert to the standard keyboard shortcuts Firefox likes.
Such a workaround is available for the Greek language, written by Athanasios Lefteris, at Mozilla και συντομεύσεις πληκτρολογίου σε Linux.
Currently the extension exists in the sandbox of the Mozilla add-ons, meaning that you are required to register (free) and also configure your profile to allow the view of sandboxed extensions (=in early stage of development, about to get accepted). It is desired to to try out the extension and write a short review. This will help to get the extension accepted as official add-on to the masses.
Many thanks to Athanasios!
p.s.
There is an existing Russian version of the extension. It is expected that other languages will follow.
Convert your legacy font to Unicode
There exist quite a few legacy fonts, from the time that 8-bit-style encodings was the norm. Nowdays, most (if not all) spoken and ancient scripts have been added to the Unicode standard.
Therefore, if you have a legacy font, you can convert to Unicode using a guide by William J Poser. The guide uses Linear B as an example.
The program mentioned in the guide is pfaedit, which is now known as FontForge. FontForge is available in your Ubuntu distribution; simply search using the package manager.
Once you have a Unicode font, the next step is to prepare an input method so that you can write in this script. But that’s another blog post.
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