[lsb-discuss] Desktop APIs

Olaf Jan Schmidt ojschmidt at kde.org
Wed Aug 2 13:31:09 PDT 2006


Hi!

I forgot the cc to FSG Accessibility.

Olaf

[ Olaf Jan Schmidt ]
> [ Robert Schweikert ]
>
> > Although GNOME and Qt are part of the LSB other toolkits are viable
> > options for applications. LSB compliance can still be achieved when the
> > toolkit itself is shipped with the application. For better integration
> > in such cases it would be nice if there were an API which allows the
> > retrieval of some basic look and feel parameters such as background
> > color and default font. This would allow an application using a
> > different tool kit to blend in better.
> >
> > This might be a Portland Group issue and then become part of the LSB
> > once the Portland Group project API is stable and ready for inclusion.
> >
> > Targeting 4.0 with this request.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Robert
>
> Hi Robert!
>
> This is a very good idea.
>
> KDE can already generate a Gtk+ theme that fits to the current KDE colour
> configuration and makes Gtk applications blend in, but generated Gtk
> configuration is incomplete, and I had trouble finding a useful
> documentation of the Gtk colour settings on the web. Also, I am not aware
> of any support in GNOME to allow Qt applications to blend in.
>
> Defining a general standard for colour and font settings would solve this,
> but it is also very difficult to do this right. How do we make sure that
> additional colours used by the application fit to the chosen background?
>
> Some people with limited vision need light text on a dark background and
> very large font and icon sizes. Setting only the background colour and the
> font would not be enough (e.g. a black frame on a black background is
> invisible). Both KDE and GNOME provide themes for some groups of partially
> sighted users, but usability tests have shown them all to be very buggy.
>
> We are currently working on a complete solution for this for KDE4 and it
> would make a lot of sense to cooperate with other toolkits here.
> Unfortunately GNOME and KDE use completely different approaches for colour
> configuration. In KDE the user can select colours. In GNOME this is coded
> into the themes, which makes it imposssible for the majority of partially
> sighted users to select the exact colours they are comfortable with.
>
> It requires some thought to find a good solution. I am cc'ing this to the
> FSG Accessibility workgroup so that we can work on it. If other people wish
> to forward it to the Portland list as well, then this is fine by me, as
> long as all suggested solutions are reviewed by FSG Accessiiblity.
>
> Olaf

-- 
Olaf Jan Schmidt, KDE Accessibility co-maintainer, open standards 
accessibility networker, Protestant theology student and webmaster of 
http://accessibility.kde.org/ and http://www.amen-online.de/




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