From The Linux Foundation

[edit] Agenda for 2007/02/20

1. Introductions if needed
2. Janina: Any LF charter text showing support of IA2?
3. IA2 Tool Progress - Michael Stewart
4. Proxy DLL
   • The consensus seems to be that this group would create the proxy DLL.
     • Whether it would be installed by apps or ATs is open but the latter seems to have the advantage. We need to get input from the ATVs.
5. Dispatch interfaces
   • I've been doing research on whether this is needed. Hopefully it is not because the indications are that this would result in a significant change to the IDL and the current implementations. This is because the dispatch mechanism has support for a limited set of data types. I have not found the MSDN docs on what this set is yet but
     • MSAA has only:
       • long, VARIANT, IDispatch*, BSTR (and pointers to these for [out] parameters)
     • IA2 has these plus:
       • boolean, HWND
       • enums of IA2ImageCoordinateType, IA2TextCoordinateType, IA2TextBoundaryType, IA2ModelChangeType
         • Note: IA2ImageCoordinateType and IA2TextCoordinateType are the same and should be changed to IA2CoordinateType
       • arrays of BSTR, IUnknown
       • structs of IA2Locale, IA2Point, IA2TableModelChange, IA2TextSegment
       • pointers to IAccessibleRelation, IAccessibleHyperlink, IUnknown, IAccessible2, IAccessibleTable
   • Dispatch interfaces provide for late binding and earlier in history this was needed by interpreted environments like VB. But by using a typelib, early binding and use of the COM VTBL interfaces can be used. Python programmers get access to non-dispatch COM interfaces through the comtypes library which fetches type libs for binding to the VTBL interfaces.
   • The ATVs are being queried about this.
6. BZR
   • Several things have been fixed but we are still not there. Due to the way BZR works (the branch point is at the top level) I had to ask for the directories to be restructured. I am waiting for that. I am also waiting for a project space for the debug tool.
   • The pending changes are primarily doc enhancements, some harmonization with at-spi, some cleanup, and the Microsoft requests to not use MSAA's get_accRole for new roles and to not use OBJID_IAAPPLICATION (but to use QueryService to ask the queried object for the object that implements IAApplication).
7. No progress on the following:
   • BZR
     • A patch submission process is being developed
   • Enter defects into Bugzilla
8. What else needs to be discussed?
9. What IA2 information do you need?
10. What IA2 issues need resolution soon? Target date?
11. What would you like to see done?
    • Directory of Programs - Steve Lee
      • I have some input for Steve
    • Developer Guide
      • This has been started; Pete to organize; who can help?
        • Sueann Nichols
    • FAQ
    • Wikipedia entry?
    • Others?