This repository contains several examples of usage of the library libatspi, included with at-spi2, on the most common languages right now. There are one directory per language. Right now those are:
- C : using directly libatspi2
- pyatspi2: using pyatspi2 python bindings
- python-atspi: using gobject introspection python bindings
- javascript: using gobject introspection javascript bindings
Each directory contains a README explaining how to run them.
We would like to keep all the languages synced. So for each example, ideally we would like to be implemented on all the languages, keeping the same name.
These programs are examples. So:
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Each example should focus on just one thing (or two) and being small. Full programs should have their own repository/project, like Orca.
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They are not full debug tools. They could be used as a quick debug fix, but if you are interested on a real accessibility debug tool, please take a look to Accerciser.
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They are not tests. Automatic tests are being added to at-spi2-core/atk at this moment, and their purpose is different, so the code.
AT-SPI stands for Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface, and it is the facto standard for providing accessibility to free and open desktops, like GNU/Linux or OpenBSD, leading by the GNOME Project. The current maintained project is in fact AT-SPI-2, that is the second version of the same framework, mostly backwards compatible.
It provides a way to communicate client programs (Assistive Tools) and server programs (the programs running on the desktop) bidirectionally. The underlying technology to do this communication in AT-SPI-2 is DBUS. On the case of AT-SPI1, it was CORBA.
To leverage the work of clients programs to call directly DBUS, a library was created to provide that functionally in a transparent way, called libatspi. It is also the basis for all current bindings to interact with at-spi, client side.
Although libatspi is a C library, it is not not API compatible with libcspi. libcspi was the c-bindings for at-spi1.
In the old days, several bindings to other languages were created manually. As part of this effort, pyatspi2 was created. pyatspi2 maintained the same API on both at-spi1 and at-spi2 (or at least, mostly).
In current days, most bindings are created automatically using gobject-introspection. libatspi is also gobject introspectable, so there is available bindings created automatically to at-spi. That includes python, and we usually call that python-atspi. Note that python-atspi and pyatspi2 API are slightly different.
javascript bindings are used on gnome-shell successfully. Probably there are other bindings available, but those are not on use right now.
In summary, if you want to create a new AT, the language options are the following:
- C: use libatspi directly
- python: pyatspi2 or python-atspi (gobject-introspection python bindings)
- javascript: gobject-introspection javascript bindings
Current libatspi documentation only includes the API reference, and at-spi2 repositories doesn't include examples right now. In the same way, the only complete AT using atspi, Orca, is too big to handle for a newcomer. Having some example using that library is a good complement as documentation.
The main reason to keep these examples as a different project, instead of adding them directly on at-spi2 repositories is avoid to add extras dependencies needed to include the examples using the specific bindings to other languages.