00:00
<Dashiva>
Doesn't that just reduce to using <object> for images?
00:00
<webben>
Dashiva: Although OTOH it provides reuse potential in practice.
00:00
<webben>
Dashiva: It's generally said that OBJECT is too broken now.
00:00
<webben>
and we can't change the content model for IMG, and browsers implement all similar words as though they were images
00:00
<Dashiva>
I seem to recall IE8 including image-object fixes for their acid2 run
00:00
<webben>
which is where we get proposals for things like PICTURE
00:01
<webben>
but PICTURE is supported by nothing, whereas AT already supports longdesc
00:01
<webben>
*some AT
00:01
<webben>
*as though they were the IMG element, I should say.
00:02
<webben>
Dashiva: Yeah, part of the problem here is AT needs to have (if anything) more backwards compat than anything else, since the upgrade time for AT is much longer than the upgrade time for ordinary browsers.
00:03
<Dashiva>
Well, that's not a given
00:03
<webben>
Dashiva: It's a reasonable assumption. To assume anything else is to gamble on Orca and NVDA being huge successes.
00:03
<webben>
(basically)
00:04
<Dashiva>
Or gamble on AT upgrading being non-broken
00:04
<webben>
It's like assuming from the start that Firebird was going to win the browser wars ... actually worse, since AT is a much more difficult industry to crack
00:05
<webben>
Dashiva: A lot of "AT" brokenness is a result of: poor accessibility frameworks (MSAA was pretty useless by most accounts), broken browsers (forcing AT to do the browser's job), and having to cope with real-world broken web content.
00:05
<Dashiva>
That's not part of the horrible upgrade cycle, though
00:05
<webben>
and equally important real-world avant-garde web content.
00:06
<Dashiva>
Every time AT comes up in a discussion, we're reminded that <large number> of users still use <version current-4>
00:06
<webben>
Dashiva: given the target is moving all the time (new browser bugs cascading to AT, new forms of broken web content, etc.), it is in a way.
00:06
<webben>
Dashiva: Yes.
00:06
<webben>
Dashiva: That's more to do with expense though.
00:07
<Dashiva>
And that's a problem
00:07
<webben>
And way outside the ability of the HTML WG/web community generally to do much about.
00:07
<Dashiva>
It's within the ability of AT companies, though
00:07
<webben>
(Well, other than inventing new accessible web-based apps which kill MS Office etc.)
00:07
<webben>
Dashiva: It's not necessarily within the ability of FS and GW-Micro to make their software cheaper without going out of business.
00:08
<webben>
(Not that I have any special insight into their finances.)
00:08
<Dashiva>
As a Opera guy I'm all for accessibility, but I do get somewhat frustrated when we're asked to both run accord for AT software being buggy -and- for refusing to allow their users to upgrade
00:09
<webben>
Dashiva: Well, they do tend to make the intra-version upgrades free.
00:09
<webben>
Dashiva: And they are (I think) making some efforts to make the upgrade path less expensive.
00:10
<webben>
GW-Micro introduced some sort of monthly payment scheme which included upgrades IIRC.
00:11
<webben>
Dashiva: No disagreement that it makes it difficult for the browser and webdev community ... but we are really only a part of what they have to deal with.
00:12
<Dashiva>
Well, we're all here to cooperate and compromise, what are they offering? :)
00:12
<webben>
Offering for what?
00:12
<webben>
(Or what for what?)
00:13
<Dashiva>
In contributions
00:13
<webben>
what sort of contributions?
00:14
<Dashiva>
Activity. In the working group
00:16
<webben>
Dashiva: Well, I'd certainly like to see more involvement (although HTML WG already has three AT vendors). But (to some degree), it's the browser makers' job to make sure they get a language that can be represented in the OS-level accessibility framework (just like with ODF etc.). And in the case of MS and Apple, both on the WG, it's very much their job to improve the framework where necessary.
00:17
<webben>
And involvement with HTML WG would probably mean less bugfixes.
00:18
<webben>
These companies aren't the size of Google, MS, Microsoft, Apple, after all. They don't have proficient developers to spare.
00:18
<Dashiva>
Strictly feaking, bugfixes don't really matter because we still have to take the old versions into considerations :)
00:19
<webben>
Dashiva: Well, okay, raising the cost of bugfixes and hence the cost of upgrading.
00:19
<othermaciej>
I have some influence over what Apple does with VoiceOver and its integration with the browser
00:19
<othermaciej>
but whatever I do, I can't make things work better in JAWS
00:20
<othermaciej>
apparently very few blind people use macs, although I'm told the experience is pretty good
00:20
<webben>
othermaciej: It is pretty good! (although WebKit has some areas to improve as we've discussed before).
00:20
webben
subscribes to the macvisionaries mailing list, so he hears a lot of user feedback.
00:21
<webben>
Hopefully Office 2008 will use the accessibility framework, that would be a big boost. Although I'm not that hopeful that it will.
00:23
<webben>
othermaciej: I agree you can't do much about JAWS yet (although that will change when WebKit gets an MSAA/IAccessible2 implementation).
00:23
<webben>
But there are at least two people with experience of JAWS as normal end-users ... and there's MS as a sort of MSAA representative.
00:24
<webben>
Don't get me wrong; would like to see an FS rep too!
00:24
<webben>
Isn't Aaron Leventhal on the WG now?
00:25
<webben>
Yeah he is (http://www.w3.org/2000/09/dbwg/details?group=40318&public=1) ... he's regularly bug-fixing Moz. for JAWS.
00:31
<weinig>
does any one know if there is a test suite for the Selectors API yet?
00:32
weinig
realizes this is not a whatwg spec and feels silly
00:44
<dglazkov>
they shoot misanthropes, don't they?
00:47
<Dashiva>
They do whatever they is defined to be does
00:48
<webben>
misanthrope shooters definitely do ;)
00:49
<dglazkov>
Dashiva, don't forget the definition of "is" :)
01:33
<othermaciej>
webben: we definitely take requests for accessibility fixes in WebKit, of course
01:33
<othermaciej>
weinig: you could ask on #webapi on this server, or ask Lachy or anne, but I don't think there is an official test suite
01:34
weinig
nods
01:34
<othermaciej>
weinig: however, that spec is going into Last Call, I would suggest you should review and get others (Catfish_Man, maybe dethbakin and mitz) to try to review too
01:34
<weinig>
othermaciej: I was planning on it
01:34
<webben>
othermaciej: Yeah I know (I've logged some). I need to find time to do some hacking myself for it too. :)
01:35
<othermaciej>
webben: that is welcome as well
01:35
<othermaciej>
I need to schedule a meeting with the VoiceOver people to talk about ARIA
01:36
<othermaciej>
lemme know if you have other things that might be worth discussing with or mentioning to them
01:36
<othermaciej>
I think a lot of HTML5 elements will help with accessibility
01:36
<othermaciej>
proper use of <section> / <article> could allow for better navigation
01:36
<othermaciej>
I dunno how focused they are on accessibility in the browser though, relative to native apps
01:38
<webben>
othermaciej: From a webkit perspective, I'd say making navigation from bit to bit around the page more predictable is the most important (but unfortunately probably the trickiest) thing.
01:38
<webben>
othermaciej: Then there are some showstopper bugs like multiple selects being broken to the extent that they can't be read.
01:38
<webben>
Table support of some sort would be good.
01:39
<webben>
Another thing would be the ability to skip links.
01:39
<webben>
VO users sometimes complain about not being able to get to the meat of pages quick enough.
01:39
<othermaciej>
I dunno what you mean about the multiple selects
01:39
<webben>
I think being able to skip groups of links (as you can with JAWS and WE)
01:39
<webben>
would help with that
01:40
<webben>
(Obviously HTML5 nav could help in the future too.)
01:40
<webben>
othermaciej: http://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15817
01:41
<webben>
(for the multiple select bug)
01:42
<webben>
othermaciej: Skipping links would also be good for non-VO users (keyboard/switch users)
01:43
<othermaciej>
webben: what defines a "group of links"?
01:44
<webben>
othermaciej: Good question :) In the case of WE and JAWS, you can set a threshold number of non-link characters between links for something to still count as a group of links (I assume that's to cope with pipe characters used in navigation)
01:45
<othermaciej>
"you can set a threshold" would probably not be an acceptable answer for Mac OS X human interface
01:45
<webben>
so say you set 3 as a threshhold ... <a href="...">foo</a> | <a href="...">baz</a> is part of a group but <a href="...">foo</a> and also <a href="...">baz</a> is not.
01:45
<othermaciej>
but series of links w/ no more than some number of characters in between is sorta reasonable
01:45
<webben>
othermaciej: Well you could devise some sort of algorithm to do something similar I guess.
01:45
<othermaciej>
I guess we could have a shortcut for that when tab to links is on
01:46
<webben>
othermaciej: "tab to links" just switches the keybindings round
01:46
<webben>
it doesn't actually change functionality
01:46
<webben>
so I'm not sure why one would restrict the functionality to one keybinding scenario or another
01:47
<webben>
(especially as that would complicate further a feature I've already had to attempt to explain more than once on macvisionaries)
01:47
<othermaciej>
I don't think it makes sense to have a "tab skipping group of links" shortcut when not in "tab to links" mode
01:48
<othermaciej>
(can't remember if full keyboard access still enables tabbing to links by default)
01:48
<webben>
othermaciej: Why not have an option tab skipping group of links
01:48
<webben>
when in option tab to links mode
01:48
<webben>
othermaciej: I don't /think/ it does. I'm pretty sure I have to set that manually.
01:48
<othermaciej>
well, it would have to be an obscure shortcut
01:49
<othermaciej>
if you have one to suggest we can consider it
01:49
<webben>
othermaciej: With JAWS you just press N
01:50
<othermaciej>
tab, option-tab, shift-tab and shift-option-tab are all taken
01:50
<webben>
granted you can't use N in the main UI though!
01:50
<othermaciej>
I don't think we'd add a keyboard shortcut on an unmodified key in the default UI
01:50
<webben>
yep ... my point is more that obscure is not necessarily better
01:51
<webben>
othermaciej: I suppose one thing to discuss is whether you could use a VO-prefixed shortcut (ctrl option) in the main UI space
01:51
<othermaciej>
the real problems are first, having a good shortcut, second figuring out how to make it reasonable discoverable, and third, figuring out what to call the feature
01:51
<othermaciej>
"skip group of links" is not a very clear name
01:51
<othermaciej>
since the default setting in the normal UI is that focus navigation skips all links
01:51
<webben>
othermaciej: It's a lot clearer than what the WE manual calls it!
01:51
<webben>
"Skip to text" IIRC
01:52
<webben>
othermaciej: Skip navigation might be better.
01:52
<webben>
(since that's the basic idea)
01:52
<othermaciej>
so this is supposed to be a heuristic to skip what are intended to be groups of navigation links?
01:52
<othermaciej>
to get to the main content faster?
01:53
<othermaciej>
I think a heuristic for voiceover to skip to main content might be the best solution for this use case
01:53
<webben>
othermaciej: That's the main purpose (although you can also have subsidiary groups of links scattered through the page)
01:53
<webben>
e.g. tag links following a blog entry
01:54
<webben>
(or social media sharing links etc.)
01:55
<webben>
I'd say getting to the main content is roughly 70% of the need.
01:56
<webben>
(very roughly)
01:56
<webben>
Getting to the main content may be even harder to create a reliable algorithm for, however.
02:04
<webben>
othermaciej: Another thing would be fixing the context menu so it can be operated with VO as in other apps.
02:04
<webben>
one of the reasons for that is so that users can add bookmarklets easily
02:05
<webben>
(which requires activating the context menu and selecting Add Link
02:05
<webben>
... that's another thing that came up on macvisionaries
02:05
<webben>
(sorry this list is a bit random)
02:05
<webben>
there's a bug filed for context menu and it has a radar
02:07
<webben>
othermaciej: oh another big thing: fix read all, so people can sit back, relax and have a webpage read to them :) http://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15487
02:14
<webben>
othermaciej: This was another bug that came out of discussions on macvisionaries: http://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15310
02:14
<webben>
(allow folks to select ranges of text with the keyboard)
02:15
<othermaciej>
does VoiceOver have a standard mechanism for keyboard selection of non-editable text?
02:16
<webben>
othermaciej: Not sure. Where else do you find non-editable documents that you'd want to copy?
02:16
<othermaciej>
Mail
02:17
<othermaciej>
iChat
02:17
<webben>
don't those both use WebKit for display too?
02:17
<othermaciej>
IRC clients
02:17
<othermaciej>
ironically all these things tend to use WebKit
02:17
<othermaciej>
but that's an implementation detail
02:18
<othermaciej>
many alerts also have the error text selectable
02:18
<othermaciej>
iChat didn't use WebKit before Leopard
02:20
<webben>
othermaciej: As far as I can tell, in Tiger, text is selectable in a plain text msg in Mail but not an HTML msg.
02:21
<othermaciej>
webben: really?
02:21
<webben>
but I may be missing something
02:21
<othermaciej>
how do you start a selection with the keyboard?
02:21
<othermaciej>
(or do you just mean that selection modification shortcuts work once you have a mouse selection)
02:21
<webben>
othermaciej: you get a normal character cursor when you focus on the plain text msg area
02:21
<webben>
so you can use shift
02:21
<webben>
shift + arrow keys
02:23
<webben>
othermaciej: I think you need VO on for that to work though
02:24
<othermaciej>
ah
02:24
<othermaciej>
probably, yes
02:31
<webben>
othermaciej: Thinking about it, groups mode provides some of that skipping functionality already (or it would if VO announced "navigation group" rather than just "group") ... it just doesn't handle the jumping to main content bit.
06:18
<MikeSmith>
webben - you still around?
06:19
MikeSmith
sees that webben mentioned "although HTML WG already has three AT vendors" and wonders which three AT vendors that might be
06:20
<othermaciej>
I assume Apple is one
06:23
<MikeSmith>
othermaciej - If that's what he meant, I guess MS would be one also.
06:30
<othermaciej>
I guess Vista includes a built-in screenreader
06:31
<othermaciej>
not sure how it compares to JAWS
06:31
<othermaciej>
Apple ships VoiceOver, not just accessibility APIs
06:46
<MikeSmith>
I wonder how much direct participation WAI has had from AT implementors
06:48
<MikeSmith>
As far as I can see, no one from Freedom Scientific has ever participated in WAI
06:49
<MikeSmith>
would be great to have them in the HTML WG but if they've never bothered to get involved in WAI, I guess we shouldn't hold our breath
14:37
<gsnedders>
Do any UAs already support @rel= noreferrer?
14:42
<krijn>
gsnedders: re http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog/i-just-added-twitter-into-my-feed#comment-45594 - wouldn't that just become ]]&gt; in a feed?
14:43
<gsnedders>
krijn: sure, but any unescaped ampersand or less-than sign after?
14:43
<krijn>
Unescaped?
14:44
<gsnedders>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ my broken tweet ]]> & test</title>
14:44
<gsnedders>
sorry…
14:44
<gsnedders>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ my broken tweet ]]> & test]]></title>
14:44
<gsnedders>
yeah, the actual second ]]> is fine. But the ampersand is a well-formness error.
14:44
<krijn>
Same question; wouldn't that just become &amp; test .. ? :)
14:45
<gsnedders>
no, it's a fatal error in XML
14:46
<krijn>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ my broken tweet ]]&gt; &amp; test]]></title>
14:46
<krijn>
That would just work, right?
14:46
<gsnedders>
no
14:46
<krijn>
Ow
14:46
<gsnedders>
yeah, that'd work
14:46
<gsnedders>
but it leaves a raw & in the HTML :P
14:47
<krijn>
Wasn't it there in the first place?
14:47
krijn
is too stupid to get this ;)
14:47
<gsnedders>
everything that SP outputs is fine for embedded in HTML: Atom uses escaped HTML.
14:47
<gsnedders>
s/for/to be/
14:48
<gsnedders>
using htmlspecialchars() would've been better than using CDATA sections
14:48
<krijn>
I never use CDATA sections, so perhaps that's why I don't get it :)
14:48
<gsnedders>
Don't use them.
14:48
<gsnedders>
:)
14:49
<gsnedders>
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/producing-xml/#cdata
14:49
<krijn>
Yeah, that's why I never use them ;)
14:51
<takkaria>
argh, this house is so christmass
14:57
<Philip`>
I saw some shops convert their Halloween displays immediately into Christmas displays - I think we need to invent a new holiday in mid-December to take some of the attention away, since otherwise there's too much build-up to Christmas and one gets fed up by the time it's actually here
14:58
<takkaria>
heh
14:58
<takkaria>
I'm up for that
14:58
<takkaria>
mind you, next year I think there's agreement amongst my siblings to have a non-commercial christmas
15:01
<gsnedders>
Philip`: Oh, Tesco was selling stuff for Halloween in August
15:50
<Philip`>
"P.S. I might turn this into a blog message because hyperlinks and plain text don't mix well." - surely that's what HTML email is for? :-)
15:50
<Philip`>
(I don't actually know how common or useful HTML email is, since I get Thunderbird to convert everything to plain text...)
15:56
<takkaria>
hyperlinks mix fine
15:56
<takkaria>
just use [1] and [2]
16:01
<gsnedders>
wow. it seems even spam bots are on holiday!
16:04
jgraham
finds Ben's citation style in email rather hard to read
16:06
<jgraham>
Specifically things like "Joe's [previous] table collection for
16:06
<jgraham>
PDF/UA was my starting point" make me think that [previous] is some sort of editorial addition, which doesn't make any sense because it's not a quote...
16:12
<takkaria>
gsnedders: oh, I thought I'd finally sorted out my spam filters...
18:38
<takkaria>
nutter alert on public-html
19:13
<kig>
Philip`: ever implemented svg's elliptical arc path segments?
19:19
<Philip`>
kig: Nope
19:20
<kig>
hm, maybe inkscape has an implementation
19:20
<Philip`>
kig: Looks like it just needs a bit of geometry calculation :-)
19:21
<kig>
i like how the elliptical arc implementation notes are as long as all the other implementation notes combined
19:21
<Philip`>
Do you want to emulate it as a series of straight lines, or as a rotated/scaled arc, or something else?
19:22
<kig>
can't use (easily) transformed arcs in opera, so bezier curves
19:22
Philip`
sees that SVG Tiny 1.2 has removed elliptical arcs
19:23
<annevk>
kig, if something in Opera is causing problems please tell, maybe it's fixable :)
19:24
<Philip`>
annevk: I think the issue is with Opera following the spec and applying transformations when drawing paths, rather than applying them while constructing paths
19:26
<annevk>
hmm
19:26
<annevk>
I think everyone agreed that following the specification for that case would be good, but I guess if Firefox still doesn't do it we're in trouble
19:27
<kig>
safari doesn't do it either afaik
19:28
<annevk>
at some point in the past we checked with Safari and Firefox guys and both agreed to change their impl
19:30
<kig>
for what it's worth, applying transforms to paths at drawing time is just about useless
19:32
<kig>
the one use-case is "draw this path several times with different transforms", but path construction cost pales in comparison with stroking, patterns and gradients, so it's not a very efficient optimization either
19:32
<annevk>
http://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13669
19:34
<kig>
(not to mention that you'd need to sort your scene by path at drawing time, which is a pain)
19:35
<annevk>
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=380338
19:35
<annevk>
vlad is somehow convinced we agreed that Firefox / Safari behavior was the way to go
19:35
<annevk>
afaict no such thing happened
19:37
<kig>
alright
19:38
<annevk>
i'm willing to believe the non-spec behavior is more useful, but I'm not sure about getting this fixed in time for Opera 9.5
19:44
<kig>
oh, btw, there's a small bug in Opera 9.5 canvas, full circle arc strokes have a gap with large line widths. i'll make a testcase, sec
19:46
<annevk>
it would be good if <canvas> was updated once again...
19:46
<annevk>
(the spec)
19:46
<annevk>
addressing all of Philip`'s outstanding comments and such
19:49
<kig>
http://glimr.rubyforge.org/cake/tests/arcStroke.html
19:53
<annevk>
thanks
19:54
annevk
files a bug
19:54
<kig>
thanks
20:00
<annevk>
Philip`, are your tests for transforms aligned with the spec or Firefox and Safari?
20:09
<Philip`>
annevk: We need an HTML55, to fix HTML5 so that it reflects current practice and fixes all the errors related to things like <canvas> :-)
20:11
<Philip`>
annevk: They should match the spec - see http://philip.html5.org/tests/canvas/suite/tests/results.html / 2d.path.transformation.*
20:39
<kig>
hooray, inkscape's arcs-to-beziers code works
20:45
<webben>
MikeSmith: Microsoft: MSAA (backbone of Windows accessibility) + Windows accessibility features and applications (Narrator, a primitive screen reader). Apple: Apple Accessibility API + VoiceOver. T. V. Raman: Emacspeak.
20:46
<annevk>
hmm ok, so if we fix our implementation a good reference would be breaking all Philip`'s tests
20:47
<webben>
MikeSmith: also IBM: various products from the shutdown HPR screen reading software to defunct LSR project and the (currently still vapourware) accessible media player they said they were going to release.
20:48
<webben>
IBM also make ViaVoice; I'm not sure that's under any active development any more either. MS make a speech recognition product which is AT software.
20:50
<Philip`>
annevk: I'd be happy to update my tests if people agree the spec should be changed
20:58
<Philip`>
(I think there's at least several other tests that rely on the spec's transformation behaviour, particularly in relation to patterns, so those would break as well if Opera changes)
21:45
<Philip`>
Is there a way to use prompt() in IE7 without it popping up a warning in the information bar instead?
21:49
<Philip`>
Hmm, it seems the answer is no
21:50
<Philip`>
Is there any reason they effectively removed prompt(), rather than changing it to use a non-standard appearance so it won't get confused with an 'official' browser window and used for UI spoofing?
22:04
<webben>
Well, it's a modal dialog I guess.
22:09
<annevk>
Philip`, ok, cool, I guess I'll know something in January, just ping me around then
22:12
<annevk>
from previous iterations going through this issue it seems it's slightly painful to do it differently
22:12
<annevk>
SVG does it like the <canvas> spec does it now it seems
22:15
<gsnedders>
PHP is so annoying. There's the function, php_charmask(), in the C sourcecode that I need access to in the userland. Ergh. :\
22:31
<gsnedders>
The behaviour is bizarre too.
22:32
<gsnedders>
It takes a character list (like "a..z" representing everything between the two, in terms of ASCII codes), and the error handling…
22:32
<gsnedders>
"a..b..c" parses to array("a", "b", ".", "c")
23:17
<Lachy>
OMG, Dean Edridge is attacking me, Anne and Hixie by private email to me