Re: [XBoard-devel] GTK Developer needed - GSOC 2014 regarding

[H.G. Muller]

Nalin.x.Linux schreef op 3/4/2014 1:35 PM:

I am Nalin from kerala/india. I understand that XBoard needs a Gtk developer. i am interested to know how much works remaining. is it enough for a GSOC project(three month duration).  and also it seems that XBoard Gtk demands for some more accessibility features. What i have noticed is that there is no navigation of pieces using arrow keys and also it does not help a visually challenged person to know current position of pieces in the board. it is also noted that ORCA(Screen Reader) does not right away announce the movement played by the opponent.

Hi Nalin,

Indeed, XBoard could greatly benefit from a developer with some experience in GTK. We now have a GTK version which is sort of usable, but it still has some annoying shortcomings. One of these is the sizing of the board window: it does not seem possible to shrink it below the initial size. There is also no user control over fonts yet, while for some of the output windows it would certainly be desirable to have that (e.g. for using figurine fonts in the Move History or Engine Output windows).

As to accessibility: there does exist a patch for WinBoard, known as the 'JAWS patch', which does provide accessibility of the type you mention there. But a large part of it (including the arrow navigation over the board for selecting pieces) is implemented in the 'front-end' code, which is not shared with XBoard. It would be great if similar functionality could be incorporated in XBoard.

Considering what we already have in both areas, I would think that 3 months should be enough to reach these goals.

H.G. Muller