Esther, Once again you are amazing. Now you just need to get Apple to fix this API>...
Jon On Sep 7, 2009, at 5:06 PM, Esther wrote: > > Hi all, > > There's been some discussion about applications which put icons on the > Status Menu bar that VoiceOver cannot navigate to. Some examples > include the early versions of ExpanDrive (the GUI-based FTP/SFTP/ > Amazon S3 etc. file sharing tool), Caffeine (a program that allows you > to override when your Mac will automatically go to sleep), Tunnelblick > and Viscosity (two GUI-based interfaces for open VPN), and DropBox > (the cross-platform file sharing app with a partially accessible > status menu icon -- not found the normal way with VO-M twice or > Control-F8, but by bringing up Window chooser menu (VO-F2 twice) and > looking for "Untitled"). > > While trying to check on the updated status of Audio Hijack Pro, I > came across an interesting post in the latest entry on the Rogue > Amoeba blog at: > http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/ > ("SoundSource 2.5 and a Story About the Menubar") > > The direct URL address to this article is rather long, but I'll insert > it here in case it is usable for future reference: > > http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/2009/08/27/soundsource-2-5-and-a-story-about-the-menubar/ > > According to this article, there are two ways to implement menu bar > icons: via a “menuExtra” and using “NSStatusItem”. The first > method, via a "menuExtra" is the way that all OS X's built-in menubar > items that Apple provides are coded. The second method is the > officially supported way for third-party software developers. Up > until the latest release of SoundSource, Rogue Amoeba used "Menu Extra > Enabler" to code SoundSource using "menuExtra", which supplies > additional coding features that are described in the blog post. > SoundSource is one of the software products whose status bar icon > could always be found with VoiceOver. (This is a free tool from Rogue > Amoeba that provides an easy way to monitor and adjust the volume > settings for your Output, Input, and System source sounds in one > place, and to access the Sound Preferences menu of System Preferences, > in the form of a menu on your status menu bar). As of the new updated > version of SoundSource for Snow Leopard, they have decided to go back > to using the less flexible "NSStatusItem", because of the need to > rewrite the "menuExtra" software code each time "Menu Extra Enabler" > breaks with a new system upgrade or release. > > Rogue Amoeba's statement: > <begin quote> > As of SoundSource v2.5.0 and Mac OS X 10.6, we’ve finally given in, > and converted SoundSource to be an NSStatusItem running as its own > standalone application. > The reason is primarily one of defeat. With every new release of MacOS > X, MenuExtra Enabler breaks and requires updating. We simply no longer > care to fight Apple on this front. When it was relatively easy to > improve SoundSource’s user experience by making it a menuExtra, we > did so. > > We now also believe that providing a good user experience in this area > is Apple’s job and not ours: NSStatusItems should simply behave as > menuExtras do, and if they don’t, the burden of fixing that is on > Apple. > > <end quote> > > My comment: "Menu Extra Enabler" appears to be Unsanity's product, > which is a haxie, meaning that it is using unsupported features and > breaks each time there is a new OS release. I think this is the > source URL: > > http://unsanity.com/mee > > While the issue of whether developers should be able to use the > menuExtras features or not is a separate issue, it does seem to be the > case that difficulties in implementing NSStatusItems as currently > supported in the Apple API framework is hampering the accessibility > of applications with VoiceOver. I can think of a couple of iPhone > apps with Desktop software components that have this same problem with > the status menu icon not being accessible (Balmuda Design's "NumberKey > Connect" desktop component to their "NumberKey" and "NumberKey Free" > apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch is one of these -- the app lets you > run a numeric keypad on the face of your iPhone or iPod Touch -- and > the keys even work with NumPad Commander; I'm not sure the keys are > labeled on the iPhone app side, though). In some cases lack of access > to the menu icon is not critical, or the apps (like Caffeine and > Viscosity are Apple Scriptable), but this does seem a shortcoming that > might be brought to Apple's attention with some feedback. > > The problem of supplying status bar menu icons that are accessible to > VoiceOver has been brought up on the Apple Developer forums, e.g. this > post on "Status Bar Item Accessibility" from one of the ExpanDrive > software team members: > > http://lists.apple.com/archives/accessibility-dev/2009/Apr/msg00007.html > > And, if any of you use SoundSource, the new version, while only works > for OS X 10.5 and above, is available from the freebies section of > Rogue Amoeba: > > http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies/ > > Cheers, > > Esther > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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