java-atk-wrapper accessibility and openjdk9

[Fridrich Strba]

Good people,

So, there are some news from the awt-dev
http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/awt-dev/2017-October/013253.html
and http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/awt-dev/2017-October/013254.html

It looks like the java-atk-wrapper has to implement the
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/9/docs/api/javax/accessibility/AccessibilityProvider.html

Which, in my understanding means implementing two methods: getName and
activate. Not sure whether creating a new class that implements those
two methods and where the activate method loads the AtkWrapper class
should be enough.

They provide basically two ways to load this then. One is to modify the
jdk by adding to <javahome>/lib/modules the java-atk-wrapper as a
module. Which would mean for packaging purposes either distributing it
always (with all the chicken-egg problem that comes with it), or have
two different JDKs built (one with and one without j-a-w).

Nevertheless, the second e-mail gives an opening to having this jar
simply on class path. Although they say that patching internal class
loaders is not a good idea (and I understand perfectly where they come
from), the patch still achieves what we need and personally, with my
little reptilian brain, don't see how I could introduce there a security
hole with those lines. So, I think that implementing the
javax.accessibility.AccessibilityProvider in j-a-w could solve our
problem and have still the advantage of being a drop-and-use solution
that does not need to modify the whole jdk.

Some thoughts?

Fridrich

On 25/10/17 14:59, Fridrich Strba wrote:
> OK, I sent it to awt-dev:
> http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/awt-dev/2017-October/013251.html
> 
> As usual, I was a bit more verbose then it was decent, but ... even my
> wife is putting up with it, so it is not mortal.
> 
> Let us see what will come up. In the meantime, I would not mind if a
> user used to the assistive technologies could try how this fares from
> her point of view.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Fridrich
> 
> On 24/10/17 17:27, Fridrich Strba wrote:
>> So, this is the third iteration of my patch and it is patching
>> completely different place. This patch assures that the
>> java-atk-wrapper.jar is considered in the time when the assistive
>> technologies are loaded. We add this element to the class path before
>> the internal class loaders are instantiated.
>>
>> We are checking whether the file that was specified in the
>> assistive_technologies.classpath exist in order not to pollute the class
>> path with inexistent elements. If we decided not to do that, the
>> assistive_technologies.classpath could be actually a real class path
>> with several directories/jar files in it. But not sure we want it here.
>>
>> Now, I am not sure whether I will be officially and publicly stoned if I
>> propose this upstream. Therefore, I would not mind if someone had a look
>> and blew me before I ridicule myself even more.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Fridrich
>>
> 
> 


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