[ANN] PreFab Event Taps Testbench 1.1
[ANN] PreFab Event Taps Testbench 1.1
- Subject: [ANN] PreFab Event Taps Testbench 1.1
- From: Bill Cheeseman <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:45:59 -0400
- Thread-topic: [ANN] PreFab Event Taps Testbench 1.1
I've posted PreFab Event Taps Testbench 1.1 at
<http://prefabsoftware.com/eventtapstestbench>. This is a free utility for
software developers. Use it to explore what your applications can do with
Quartz event taps. In addition, you should find it to be a useful tool to
test drivers for hardware input devices such as trackballs and tablets, to
test virtual software input devices including assistive applications for
persons with disabilities, and to test remote control software.
These are the new features that I like the most:
1. It now includes complete support for tablet proximity and pointer events.
(I've only tested this on a high-end professional Wacom tablet. I'd be
interested in feedback from users of Wacom consumer tablets, and non-Wacom
tablets.)
2. It includes a new Current Event window where you can examine the most
recent event in real time in an easy-to-read layout showing all available
event information at a glance. The old Events window is still available as
the Event History window, showing a configurable number of recent events in
text format.
3. It allows users to make Event Taps Testbench a trusted accessibility
process without turning on global access for assistive devices. I'll add
this feature to UI Browser and UI Actions in due course.
4. It enables users to turn on global access for assistive devices, if
desired, without opening System Preferences.
5. There were altogether too many bugs in 1.0. I think I've fixed all of
them. ;)
The most important new feature is that the PFEventTaps framework is now
installed separately as a shared framework in /Library/Frameworks, where it
can be used (under license) by any developer. The framework wraps Apple's
Quartz event taps C API, including many transparent workarounds for Apple
bugs. It's an Objective-C 2.0 universal binary supporting 32-bit and 64-bit
architectures and retain/release and garbage collection memory management.
It enables a Cocoa application to respond to both local and remote user
input events from a keyboard, mouse, scroll wheel or tablet using Cocoa
delegate methods Will Post Event, Should Post Event, May Post Modified Event
For Event, and Did Post Event, regardless of the application at which the
events were targeted. It also helps you build remote control applications,
assistive applications for persons with disabilities, and other tools that
modify user input events on the fly before they are posted to their target.
I'm using this as an opportunity to try an experiment in commercialization
of Objective-C frameworks. The PFEventTaps framework may be licensed without
charge for distribution with a free software product. A flat one-time
per-product license fee of $250 is required to distribute the framework with
a product for which you request or require payment, such as donationware,
shareware and commercial software. Source code is available for a separate
fee. Different terms apply to large or established commercial software
developers.
I'll be interested in hearing what people think of this approach. It seems
to me that developers of Mac frameworks and similar code should be able to
share in any income that they help other developers to generate. As the Mac
platform grows, I believe this will encourage more and better software for
all of us. At the same time, I think developers of free software should be
able to use my frameworks without charge, to the same end. So the framework
is installed, with headers, in /Library/Frameworks, where everybody can see
it. The headers include copyright notices and information about how to
obtain a distribution license, and the distribution license form is embedded
in the framework and available for download from our Web site.
--
Bill Cheeseman - email@hidden
Quechee Software, Quechee, Vermont, USA
www.quecheesoftware.com
PreFab Software - www.prefabsoftware.com
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Accessibility-dev mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden