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Re: Setup.exe: Keyboard accessibility


On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 08:07:23 -0700, Steve Holmes <steve@holmesgrown.com> wrote:

> What kind of control is the package selection list?

It's a vanilla Windows window, done with old-fashioned explicit
windows message handling: WM_PAINT, WM_LBUTTONDOWN, etc. Part of the
problem is that it uses a bunch of custom class wrappers around
Windows' controls: nothing wrong with that, but it reduces the
maintainability and the readability of the code.

> I'm looking into
> enabling it to work with the keyboard.  I think it will be easier to
> scroll it that way.

One of the problems with the control is that it doesn't take focus,
and it reacts differently when you click on different parts of the
line. There's embedded checkboxes and what essentially amounts to a
multi-state button embedded in every Cygwin package description.

Frankly, I think it would be easier to write a new interface. IMHO,
the current interface is pretty dire from a usability standpoint,
putting aside accessibility for a moment.

I hear Qt is now GPL'd for Windows. Perhaps it would be profitable to
rewrite the interface in that?


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