__/ [ Peter Köhlmann ] on Thursday 24 August 2006 23:07 \__
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> __/ [ Oliver Wong ] on Thursday 24 August 2006 20:00 \__
>>
>>>
>>> "BearItAll" <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>> news:1156405542.56949.0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Mass ITD Resolved Accessibility Issues, Adjusts ODF Rollout Details
>>>>>
>>>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>>> | Now let's turn to Dana Blankenhorn's bizarre piece. First of all,
>>>>> | Dana (who should know better) picks up and repeats the open source
>>>>> confusion,
>>>>> | titling his piece Blind leading the way from open source.
>>>>> |
>>>>> | I'm sure this is just a hiccup, but apparently the blind have
>>>>> | given
>>>>> | Massachusetts' efforts to mandate open source the shaft. Because
>>>>> | Open Document Format (ODF) software (Open Office) does not yet
>>>>> | work with screen magnifiers, which make computer documents usable
>>>>> | by those who are legally blind, the state of Massachusetts is
>>>>> |
>>>>> | This is an ancient piece of FUD (mandating open source) that has been
>>>>> | perpetrated by ODF opponents, and it is discouraging to see it
>>>>> | continue to appear in venues (such as ZDNet and TechWorld) that have
>>>>> credibility.
>>>>> `----
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>
>
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20060823131715736
>>>>
>>>> ODF is just xml based, those magnifyers must be able to work with normal
>>>> web
>>>> browser displays, so I can't see this as a serious problem. Not
>>>> something that should be used to delay Massachusetts take up of it
>>>> anyway.
>>>
>>> Yes, but presumably when you're "reading" an ODF document, you're not
>>> looking at the raw XML via your webbrowser, but rather you're using
>>> software like Open Office to display it. I guess what they're complaining
>>> about is a lack of a screen magnifier built into Open Office.
>>>
>>> In Windows XP, there's an OS level utility called "Magnifier" which
>>> will
>>> magnifiy any portion of the screen, and so individual programs don't need
>>> to implement magnifiers themselves. I'd be extremely surprised if Linux
>>> doesn't offer a similar utility, especially since XGL would make this
>>> trivially easy to implement. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw screen
>>> magnification occur in one of the XGL videos Roy posted.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUSn-jBA3CE
>>
>> It comes towards the end, IIRC. Not one of the most exciting features,
>> unless you are near-sighted.
>>
>
> It is one of those features I never use. In KDE, it is KMag
That's just what I thought.I know about KMagnifier and used it before. I
wonder if Microsoft's software does some rerendering of the fonts so that
pixel magnification does not result in coarse text. If not, then it all just
pure FUD. Either way, it's definitely FUD. Fortunately, the significant of
this Mass. 'affair' is the influence it had on the rest of the world,
notably west Europe and India.
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | YaSTall SuSE to figure out the magic
http://Schestowitz.com | Free as in Free Beer ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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