[Kde-accessibility] Features of KMag

[Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira]

Hi,
I just joined the mailing list.

Since the release of KDE 4 i wonder why the KMag feature of docking window
mode (top, bottom, etc) was removed.
After opening feature request on bugzilla and posting on forums, i (and
other users) received no information about this.
Now i am thinking on the possibility to re-add this feature in the actual
code of KMag by myself.

I would like to know if anything has been discussed about this here or if
any KMag active developer has interest in this feature implementation (or
just have any note or information regarding this subject).

Thanks in advance.
--
*Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira*
CTO - ProGolden Soluções Tecnológicas
MSc - Computer Science - Universidade Federal de Lavras

Skype: renatorro.comp.ufla.br
ICQ: 669012672
Phone: [phone]

Conheça o PrêmioIdeia - Inovação Colaborativa na sua empresa!
http://www.premioideia.com/

[Frederik Gladhorn]

Hello Renato,

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Hi,
I just joined the mailing list.
Since the release of KDE 4 i wonder why the KMag feature of docking window
mode (top, bottom, etc) was removed.

The porting from KDE 3 to 4 was quite a while ago and some features got lost
because the people doing the work were not using them or they were harder to
port and then forgotten. I am not much involved with KMag and it generally
sees little development, so if you want to look at the code that's more than
welcome.

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
After opening feature request on bugzilla and posting on forums, i (and
other users) received no information about this.
Now i am thinking on the possibility to re-add this feature in the actual
code of KMag by myself.

I think there is simply nobody working on KMag at the moment.
Please do work on the feature. If you find it's a feature you would use,
you'll have a great motivation to get it in :)
I'm happy to discuss your plans and help if you get stuck.

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
I would like to know if anything has been discussed about this here or if
any KMag active developer has interest in this feature implementation (or
just have any note or information regarding this subject).

I don't recall much discussion related to KMag lately.

Cheers,
Frederik

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Thanks in advance.

[Christoph Feck]

On Tuesday 30 June 2015 23:39:28 Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Since the release of KDE 4 i wonder why the KMag feature of docking
window mode (top, bottom, etc) was removed.
After opening feature request on bugzilla and posting on forums, i
(and other users) received no information about this.
Now i am thinking on the possibility to re-add this feature in the
actual code of KMag by myself.
I would like to know if anything has been discussed about this here
or if any KMag active developer has interest in this feature
implementation (or just have any note or information regarding
this subject).

It looks like the "edge mode" was not removed, but was wrongly
committed to the KDE/3.5 branch after master was used for KDE 4
development.

Christoph Feck

[Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira]

Hi Frederik,
I was looking at the code and the commit was on October 2014.
I already cloned the repository as readonly and looking some diffs on the
code between KDE 3.5 and KDE 4.0 branches.

As Christoph said, it looks like they removed some methods in some point
there, but i saw no clear reason for it.

I have low vision and uses the KMag as screen magnifier in the top edge
mode.
Since the KDE 3.5 was being deprecated in Unix distributions. i start to
swap between then using only the ones that still provides KDE 3 in their
repositories.
After a while of course all of then stopped using KDE 3.
I ended up using openSUSE, that uses KDE 4 but provides all KDE 3 libs and
the old kaccessibility package.
But now, the KMag has some new features that interest me a lot, like the
follow keyboard focus feature.
So i was thinking in doing this development since a couple of years.

I will do some tests on the KMag latest code to try to enable the edge mode
again on 4.14 version.

If you all could help me, i have 2 questions that can help me with this:
- The QAccessibilityClient is an opensource project? If so, where can i get
it's code to build and make it available to KMag for enabling keyboard
focus tracking?
- The other question is more technical, there is something equivalent to
kdockwidget.h of kdelibs3 in kdelibs4?

Thanks a lot for the answers.
Regards

Post by Christoph Feck
On Tuesday 30 June 2015 23:39:28 Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Since the release of KDE 4 i wonder why the KMag feature of docking
window mode (top, bottom, etc) was removed.
After opening feature request on bugzilla and posting on forums, i
(and other users) received no information about this.
Now i am thinking on the possibility to re-add this feature in the
actual code of KMag by myself.
I would like to know if anything has been discussed about this here
or if any KMag active developer has interest in this feature
implementation (or just have any note or information regarding
this subject).

It looks like the "edge mode" was not removed, but was wrongly
committed to the KDE/3.5 branch after master was used for KDE 4
development.
Christoph Feck

--
*Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira*
CTO - ProGolden Soluções Tecnológicas
MSc - Computer Science - Universidade Federal de Lavras

Skype: renatorro.comp.ufla.br
ICQ: 669012672
Phone: [phone]

Conheça o PrêmioIdeia - Inovação Colaborativa na sua empresa!
http://www.premioideia.com/

[Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira]

I already implemented some lines and was able to bring back the feature.
But i am developing at OS X and due to KWindowSystem problems (see
https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/120931/) i wasn't able to properly test
the docking features.
I will setup a linux machine to properly test it and clean the code.

I think this feature will be easily brought back =)

2015-06-30 21:40 GMT-03:00 Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira <

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Hi Frederik,
I was looking at the code and the commit was on October 2014.
I already cloned the repository as readonly and looking some diffs on the
code between KDE 3.5 and KDE 4.0 branches.
As Christoph said, it looks like they removed some methods in some point
there, but i saw no clear reason for it.
I have low vision and uses the KMag as screen magnifier in the top edge
mode.
Since the KDE 3.5 was being deprecated in Unix distributions. i start to
swap between then using only the ones that still provides KDE 3 in their
repositories.
After a while of course all of then stopped using KDE 3.
I ended up using openSUSE, that uses KDE 4 but provides all KDE 3 libs and
the old kaccessibility package.
But now, the KMag has some new features that interest me a lot, like the
follow keyboard focus feature.
So i was thinking in doing this development since a couple of years.
I will do some tests on the KMag latest code to try to enable the edge
mode again on 4.14 version.
- The QAccessibilityClient is an opensource project? If so, where can i
get it's code to build and make it available to KMag for enabling keyboard
focus tracking?
- The other question is more technical, there is something equivalent to
kdockwidget.h of kdelibs3 in kdelibs4?
Thanks a lot for the answers.
Regards

Post by Christoph Feck
On Tuesday 30 June 2015 23:39:28 Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Since the release of KDE 4 i wonder why the KMag feature of docking
window mode (top, bottom, etc) was removed.
After opening feature request on bugzilla and posting on forums, i
(and other users) received no information about this.
Now i am thinking on the possibility to re-add this feature in the
actual code of KMag by myself.
I would like to know if anything has been discussed about this here
or if any KMag active developer has interest in this feature
implementation (or just have any note or information regarding
this subject).

It looks like the "edge mode" was not removed, but was wrongly
committed to the KDE/3.5 branch after master was used for KDE 4
development.
Christoph Feck

--
*Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira*
CTO - ProGolden Soluções Tecnológicas
MSc - Computer Science - Universidade Federal de Lavras
Skype: renatorro.comp.ufla.br
ICQ: 669012672
Phone: [phone]
Conheça o PrêmioIdeia - Inovação Colaborativa na sua empresa!
http://www.premioideia.com/

--
*Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira*
CTO - ProGolden Soluções Tecnológicas
MSc - Computer Science - Universidade Federal de Lavras

Skype: renatorro.comp.ufla.br
ICQ: 669012672
Phone: [phone]

Conheça o PrêmioIdeia - Inovação Colaborativa na sua empresa!
http://www.premioideia.com/

[Bob Stia]

Hello, A while ago I posted an inquiry feature which I really need to have. I
am severly sight impaired and can only read my screen with Kmag. The
following is a copy of my original inquiry.

Hello,  I am trying to configure Kmag to emulate a normal magnifying glass. In
other words the Kmag window magnifies whatever it is under the Kmag window.
If this is possible, will someone please explain how to make this happen.
This is under KDE 3 on open suse 13.1 and KDE 4 on 13.2.

I would appreciate any help to implement this feature.

Bob Stia

[Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira]

Hi Bob!
This is of course it is possible.
If you want, you can join me on improving the KMag.
I created a GitHub repo and replicated the code of KMag's 4.14 branch.
I just tested in Linux and the coking feature works fine now. I just have
to improve the UI parts related to the new feature (labels, i18n, hide
toolbars, etc).
Take a look:
https://github.com/renatorroliveira/xkmag

If you want a i can add you as a developer in the repository.
Regards

Post by Bob Stia
Hello, A while ago I posted an inquiry feature which I really need to
have. I
am severly sight impaired and can only read my screen with Kmag. The
following is a copy of my original inquiry.
Hello, I am trying to configure Kmag to emulate a normal magnifying
glass. In
other words the Kmag window magnifies whatever it is under the Kmag window.
If this is possible, will someone please explain how to make this happen.
This is under KDE 3 on open suse 13.1 and KDE 4 on 13.2.
I would appreciate any help to implement this feature.
Bob Stia
_______________________________________________
kde-accessibility mailing list
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility

--
*Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira*
CTO - ProGolden Soluções Tecnológicas
MSc - Computer Science - Universidade Federal de Lavras

Skype: renatorro.comp.ufla.br
ICQ: 669012672
Phone: [phone]

Conheça o PrêmioIdeia - Inovação Colaborativa na sua empresa!
http://www.premioideia.com/

[guenter]

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Hi Bob!
This is of course it is possible.
If you want, you can join me on improving the KMag.
I created a GitHub repo and replicated the code of KMag's 4.14 branch.
I just tested in Linux and the coking feature works fine now. I just
have to improve the UI parts related to the new feature (labels, i18n,
hide toolbars, etc).
https://github.com/renatorroliveira/xkmag

Hi Renato,

compliments for your effort to take over KMag!

I cloned your xkmag but I had no luck building it, neither with KDevelop
using your project nor running cmake.
Could you, please, check your project as a different user on your
machine by a clean checkout.

BTW I'm running OpenSuse 13.1.

Greetings,
guenter

[Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira]

Hi guenter,
I cloned and the make succeeded on OpenSUSE 13.2.

cmake .
make

Which part of the build failed? The cmake or the make on your machine?
The build of KMag has many build-time dependencies, maybe something is
missing on your machine.
If you could, paste the error messages here please.

Regards.

Post by guenter

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Hi Bob!
This is of course it is possible.
If you want, you can join me on improving the KMag.
I created a GitHub repo and replicated the code of KMag's 4.14 branch.
I just tested in Linux and the coking feature works fine now. I just
have to improve the UI parts related to the new feature (labels, i18n,
hide toolbars, etc).
https://github.com/renatorroliveira/xkmag

Hi Renato,
compliments for your effort to take over KMag!
I cloned your xkmag but I had no luck building it, neither with KDevelop
using your project nor running cmake.
Could you, please, check your project as a different user on your
machine by a clean checkout.
BTW I'm running OpenSuse 13.1.
Greetings,
guenter
--
.
--
.
_______________________________________________
kde-accessibility mailing list
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility

--
*Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira*
CTO - ProGolden Soluções Tecnológicas
MSc - Computer Science - Universidade Federal de Lavras

Skype: renatorro.comp.ufla.br
ICQ: 669012672
Phone: [phone]

Conheça o PrêmioIdeia - Inovação Colaborativa na sua empresa!
http://www.premioideia.com/

[guenter]

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Hi guenter,
I cloned and the make succeeded on OpenSUSE 13.2.
cmake .
make
Which part of the build failed? The cmake or the make on your machine?
The build of KMag has many build-time dependencies, maybe something is
missing on your machine.
If you could, paste the error messages here please.
Regards.

You should have a personal mail now, avoiding noise in this list.

[guenter]

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Hi Bob!
This is of course it is possible.
If you want, you can join me on improving the KMag.
I created a GitHub repo and replicated the code of KMag's 4.14 branch.
I just tested in Linux and the coking feature works fine now. I just
have to improve the UI parts related to the new feature (labels, i18n,
hide toolbars, etc).
https://github.com/renatorroliveira/xkmag

Hi Renato,

compliments for your effort to take over KMag!

I cloned your xkmag but I had no luck building it, neither with KDevelop
using your project nor running cmake.
Could you, please, check your project as a different user on your
machine by a clean checkout.

BTW I'm running OpenSuse 13.1.

Greetings,
guenter

[Felix Miata]

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Hi Bob!
This is of course it is possible.
If you want, you can join me on improving the KMag.
I created a GitHub repo and replicated the code of KMag's 4.14 branch.
I just tested in Linux and the coking feature works fine now. I just have
to improve the UI parts related to the new feature (labels, i18n, hide
toolbars, etc).
https://github.com/renatorroliveira/xkmag
If you want a i can add you as a developer in the repository.

The way Bob wrote his plea for help it looks like Renato believed Bob is a
developer. Github is over my head, and over Bob's, useful only to developers
AFAICT. Bob is just a non-developer user who desperately needs for KMag to
work correctly in either KDE4 or KDE3 (or both), like it used to do in KDE3
in openSUSE 11.3 and prior.

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira

Post by Bob Stia
Hello, A while ago I posted an inquiry feature which I really need to
have. I
am severly sight impaired and can only read my screen with Kmag. The
following is a copy of my original inquiry.
Hello, I am trying to configure Kmag to emulate a normal magnifying
glass. In
other words the Kmag window magnifies whatever it is under the Kmag window.
If this is possible, will someone please explain how to make this happen.
This is under KDE 3 on open suse 13.1 and KDE 4 on 13.2.
I would appreciate any help to implement this feature.

[Olaf Schmidt-Wischhöfer]

Hi Renato,

thanks you!

I do not have enough time to continue working on kmag, so you are very welcome
to take over.

It is important, however, that we do not end up with conflicting versions here
on KDE and on github. Many volunteers from the KDE community contribute to
kmag by translating it, packaging it, and by releasing it as part of the KDE
application bundles.

Do you have a KDE developer account, so that you can commit your changes to
KDE’s git system?

If not – I can certainly find people that will help you through the first steps.

Best regards, Olaf

Am Mittwoch, 1. Juli 2015, 17:11:07 schrieb Renato Resende Ribeiro de

Post by Renato Resende Ribeiro de Oliveira
Hi Bob!
This is of course it is possible.
If you want, you can join me on improving the KMag.
I created a GitHub repo and replicated the code of KMag's 4.14 branch.
I just tested in Linux and the coking feature works fine now. I just have
to improve the UI parts related to the new feature (labels, i18n, hide
toolbars, etc).
https://github.com/renatorroliveira/xkmag
If you want a i can add you as a developer in the repository.
Regards

Post by Bob Stia
Hello, A while ago I posted an inquiry feature which I really need to
have. I
am severly sight impaired and can only read my screen with Kmag. The
following is a copy of my original inquiry.
Hello, I am trying to configure Kmag to emulate a normal magnifying
glass. In
other words the Kmag window magnifies whatever it is under the Kmag window.
If this is possible, will someone please explain how to make this happen.
This is under KDE 3 on open suse 13.1 and KDE 4 on 13.2.
I would appreciate any help to implement this feature.
Bob Stia
_______________________________________________
kde-accessibility mailing list
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility

[Frederik Gladhorn]

Hi all,

I just discussed with Martin about KMag, and I think it's time to re-think the
application a bit.

Of course the main issue is to find someone willing to work on the project.
Short of that, blogging about it would probably be a nice start (make sure it
ends up on planet.kde.org).

For now we have KWin which has a mangification plugin which is not suitable
for accessibility purposes since it wasn't designed with that in mind.
On the other hand we have changes coming up when transitioning to wayland,
which means that KMag will simply stop working since it's currently completely
tied to X11/XCB.

We think the way forward would be to rewrite kmag to talk to kwin via dbus.
1) kwin gets a new plugin for magnification with a dbus api
2) kmag talks to kwin and relies on it to do the actual mangnification
3) kwin draws the right window/region where it is told by kmag

This is important because on wayland we'll have actual security and cannot
just grab parts of the screen and repaint it somewhere else.

The upside of this approach is that it will be much more efficient and clean,
less code in kmag.

There is one downside: this will only work when running kwin, not with other
window managers.

Martin and I are happy to work with anyone interested in working on this.

Since it's a big rewrite, now would be the time to also gather which features
make sense, so this is a not very technical thing where anyone could help.
In addition we should get in touch with the visual design group to help with
UI design and usability. Their main point of contact is the kde forum.

Feel free to re-use this email as you see fit to get others involved.

Cheers
Frederik