[compiz] Accessibility: mouse guides for Compiz, and forthcoming contributions

[Stephen M. Webb]

On 15-03-30 01:30 PM, Luca Saiu wrote:
> Hello.

Hi.

> I've developed a relatively simple addition to the "Show mouse" plugin
> to (optionally) draw what we call "mouse guides": horizontal and
> vertical lines crossing near the mouse pointer to make its position more
> visible to visually impaired users.
> 
> The user can configure the guide thickness, color (including
> transparency) and distance from the mouse, using CCSM.

OK.

> A patch is attached.  Please feel free to tell me about any problems,
> including about the repo we should be using; we have based our work on
> the debian repository on alioth.  It was not completely clear to us what
> repo is considered "official" for compiz, as several look abandoned.
> I'm also slightly concerned about CPU use.  Shall I separate the guides
> functionality into a new plugin?

The official upstream repo for Compiz 0.9 (the version you're targeting since you're writing C++ code) is at [1].  The
preferred way to submit changes is to submit a merge proposal, so you can get and respond to feedback from upstream
developers.  If you're unfamiliar with bzr I can do that for you, but there may be delays as I try to find the time.

> A random questions: we are having problems seeing any effect of the
> Compiz configuration in gsettings after installation, even if configured
> with -DUSE_GSETTINGS=ON; as far as I can see compiz stores its
> configuration in gconf.  However some code supporting gsettings is
> obviously there.  Is the functionality not completely implemented, or
> are we doing something wrong?

Gconf support in compizconfig was deprecated a couple of years ago and was supposed to have been removed in favour of a
gsettings back end using dconf.  Gsettings is used by Ubuntu's Unity desktop, so it should be well-supported.
Unfortunately I'm really not an expert on that area of things, so I can't offer much in the way of suggestions.

> Another patch containing a new plugin for mouse cursor themes is
> forthcoming.

Nice.

[1] https://code.launchpad.net/~compiz-team/compiz/0.9.12

-- 
Stephen M. Webb  <stephen.webb at canonical.com>