-README
+at-spi version 1.9.0
-at-spi version 1.6.0
+This version of at-spi requires atk 1.17.0 or later.
-*** Welcome to the Gnome Accessibility Project! ***
+This version of at-spi is a MAJOR break from previous versions.
+It has been completely rewritten to use D-Bus rather than
+ORBIT / CORBA for its transport protocol.
If you have not already done so, please visit
The directories within this package are arranged as follows:
- idl : this directory contains the interface definitions
+ idl : This directory contains the interface definitions
(in Interface Definition Language) for the
accessibility support interfaces exposed by
the AT central registry, accessible applications,
and UI components.
- Though IDL is often associated with CORBA, and this
- implementation of the at-spi is CORBA-based, these
- interfaces are not CORBA-specific, rather they define
- the abstract "contract" between accessible application
- and client assistive technology.
-
- Assistive Technologies will not normally be concerned
- with the underlying implementation details of the IDL.
-
- libspi : this directory contains implementation-specific
- code which connects the in-process ATK interfaces
- (implemented by GTK+ and, potentially, by other
- native-code UI toolkits) to the interprocess SPI.
- It also contains implementation code used by the
- central accessibility registry. These sources are
- used to build libspi.so, a shared object library which
- is used by accessibility clients and servers alike.
- This interfaces exposed in this library are ordinarily
- not directly used by AT, but are used by the C bindings,
- thus AT must dynamically link to this library.
-
- registryd : this directory contains code specific to the
+
+ This is possibly historic. The idl formed the basis
+ for the XML protocol definitions now located
+ in the directory "xml".
+
+ xml : This directory contains XML documents describing
+ the D-Bus protocol in a subset of Telepathy XML.
+
+ tools : Miscellaneous tools. Mostly for converting protocol
+ XML into D-Bus introspection, 'C' types and documentation.
+
+ droute : Contains a framework for registering objects
+ with a D-Bus connection and for routing messages to
+ the implementing object.
+
+ Used by the ATK adaptor.
+
+ dbind : Library to ease making D-Bus method calls, contains
+ marshalling code to convert function arguments
+ and a provided D-Bus signature into a D-Bus message.
+
+ Used by cspi.
+
+ spi-common : Contains 'C' types derived from the D-Bus
+ protocol specification. These types are used by
+ both the registry daemon and the ATK adaptor.
+ Structures are mainly related to events.
+
+ registryd : This directory contains code specific to the
central accessibility registry, and the registry
executable is built in this directory.
- atk-bridge : this directory contains code that bridges
+ atk-adaptor : This directory contains code that bridges
the at-spi to the GTK+ toolkit, and which is
loaded at runtime by GTK+-based Gnome applications.
The 'bridge' automatically registers GTK+-2.0
the registry to register handlers for specific event
types.
- cspi : this directory contains the C bindings for use by
- ATs, and the code which adapts the implementation-specific
- code to the C bindings API. The header file
- "spi.h" contains the API declarations used by AT clients.
-
- tests : this directory should be called 'examples', since
- it contains not only test programs, but examples
- of how to use the AT-SPI. The sample program
- "simple-at.c" is currently the primary example of
- how the C bindings API should be used.
-
- docs : this directory contains documentation for the AT-SPI.
- Documentation is currently limited to API documentation
- for the C bindings API, and is built from sources
- via the 'gtk-doc' system.
-
-Building the documentation ============================
-
-Pre-built versions of the HTML documentation are available at
-http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/tech-docs/at-spi-docs/book1.html.
-However the documentation in the docs directory is the most up-to-date.
-Building the docs requires docbook and jade, see the 'gtk-doc'
-package (from Gnome CVS) for more information.
-
-Use of the AT-SPI ======================================
-
-Accessible applications will register with this registry service
-(via bonobo-activation) and adaptive/assistive technologies will
-register with the service as well, to indicate their interest in
-receiving UI events. ATs can also use the registry's services
-programmatically to query accessible applications.
-
-Running the test programs: ============================
-
-At the moment the only clients and are two test at clients
-('at' and 'simple-at'). There is also a test app ('app) in
-the 'tests' subdirectory.
-
-If you have a working ORBit2/bonobo-activation installation you can
-run the tests after adding the registryd directory to the
-bonobo-activation directory list with bonobo-activation-sysconf,
-or by installing Accessibility_Registry.server in your
-bonobo-activation 'servers' directory.
-
-You can then run './at' and './app' from the 'test' directory, to see
-'app' register as an application, and 'at' as a listening client.
-Bonobo should take care of the job of bootstrapping the registry daemon
-('registryd') for you. These test programs use the bonobo/CORBA
-C bindings directly.
-
-The third test program, "simple-at", is a better illustration of how
-most actual AT should use the at-spi, via the C bindings library
-(documented online at
-http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/tech-docs/at-spi-docs/book1.html).
-Though 'simple-at' will work with the test application 'app',
-a better demonstration of the AT-SPI can be made after installing
-libspi and libcspi (via 'make install'). If you set the GTK_MODULES
-environment variable to "gail:atk-bridge", any GTK+2.0
-application run subsequently will register with the at-spi registry,
-and 'simple-at' will register for and receive focus and
-buttonpress events from those applications.
-
-At the moment application and at deregistration are not 100% reliable,
-so if you get you are advised to kill the registry daemon if you exit either 'at' or 'app'
-instances, via the 'bonobo-slay' command. You may run as many instances
-of each application or sample AT client as you like, concurrently -
-you may find it useful to do so in separate terminal windows.
-
-'at' connects to the registry as an event listener, then queries the
-service for the number of virtual desktops (currently always 0 or 1),
-and queries each desktop for the accessible applications it is running.
-It then prints out the name of each such application (as reported by the
-application's accessibility interfaces), and then waits to receive events.
-
-'app' connects to the registry as an application, then dispatches an
-event which the registry should relay to all registered listeners.
-Thus instances of 'app' run after 'at' should cause the 'at' instances
-to receive events.
-
-
--Bill
+ cspi : The client (AT) side interface - 'C' bindings.
+
+ registryd : The registry daemon code. The registry daemon
+ keeps a register of accessible applications and presents
+ this to clients (ATs).
+ It is also responsible for delivering device events.
projects / platform / core / uifw / at-spi2-atk.git / blobdiff