Bug#492124: apparently no way to disable blinking cursor

[Frederik Eaton]

Package: openoffice.org-base
Version: 1:2.4.0-6
Severity: normal

Many people are aggravated by having to look at a blinking cursor when
they are editing a document - one web page compares it to Chinese
water torture. I have disabled the blinking cursor in Gnome and
Firefox and in my terminal, but there appears to be no way to do it in
OpenOffice. If this is true, then until there is a way, the software
will be practically unusable to me and to a minority of others. This
is an accessibility issue, which should be pretty easy to fix.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.22-1-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages openoffice.org-base depends on:
ii  gij [java2-runtime]           4:4.2.2-1  The GNU Java bytecode interpreter
ii  gij-4.1 [java2-runtime]       4.1.2-19   The GNU Java bytecode interpreter
ii  java-gcj-compat               1.0.77-2   Java runtime environment using GIJ
ii  libc6                         2.7-12     GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libgcc1                       1:4.3.1-4  GCC support library
ii  libhsqldb-java                1.8.0.9-3  Java SQL database engine
ii  libstdc++6                    4.3.1-4    The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libstlport4.6ldbl             4.6.2-3.2  STLport C++ class library
ii  openoffice.org-base-core      1:2.4.0-6  OpenOffice.org office suite -- lib
ii  openoffice.org-core           1:2.4.0-6  OpenOffice.org office suite archit
ii  openoffice.org-java-common    1:2.4.1-4  OpenOffice.org office suite Java s

openoffice.org-base recommends no packages.

Versions of packages openoffice.org-core depends on:
ii  fontconfig             2.6.0-1           generic font configuration library
ii  libc6                  2.7-12            GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcairo2              1.6.4-2           The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libcurl3               7.16.4-2          Multi-protocol file transfer libra
ii  libdb4.6               4.6.21-10         Berkeley v4.6 Database Libraries [
ii  libexpat1              2.0.1-4           XML parsing C library - runtime li
ii  libfreetype6           2.3.7-1           FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libgcc1                1:4.3.1-4         GCC support library
ii  libglib2.0-0           2.16.4-1          The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgstreamer-plugins-b 0.10.20-1         GStreamer libraries from the "base
ii  libgstreamer0.10-0     0.10.20-1         Core GStreamer libraries and eleme
ii  libgtk2.0-0            2.12.10-2         The GTK+ graphical user interface
ii  libhunspell-1.2-0      1.2.4-2           spell checker and morphological an
ii  libhyphen0             2.4-2             ALTLinux hyphenation library - sha
ii  libice6                2:1.0.4-1         X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libicu38               3.8.1-2           International Components for Unico
ii  libjpeg62              6b-14             The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG
ii  libldap-2.4-2          2.4.10-1          OpenLDAP libraries
ii  libneon27              0.28.2-2          An HTTP and WebDAV client library
ii  libnspr4-0d            4.7.1-3           NetScape Portable Runtime Library
ii  libnss3-1d             3.12.0~rc3-3      Network Security Service libraries
ii  libpam0g               0.99.7.1-6        Pluggable Authentication Modules l
ii  libpango1.0-0          1.20.2-2          Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libsm6                 2:1.0.3-2         X11 Session Management library
ii  libssl0.9.8            0.9.8g-10.1       SSL shared libraries
ii  libstdc++6             4.3.1-4           The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libstlport4.6ldbl      4.6.2-3.2         STLport C++ class library
ii  libx11-6               2:1.0.3-7         X11 client-side library
ii  libxaw7                2:1.0.4-2         X11 Athena Widget library
ii  libxext6               2:1.0.4-1         X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxinerama1           2:1.0.3-2         X11 Xinerama extension library
ii  libxml2                2.6.32.dfsg-2     GNOME XML library
ii  libxrender1            1:0.9.4-2         X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  libxslt1.1             1.1.24-1          XSLT processing library - runtime
ii  libxt6                 1:1.0.5-3         X11 toolkit intrinsics library
ii  libxtst6               2:1.0.3-1         X11 Testing -- Resource extension
ii  openoffice.org-common  1:2.4.0-6         OpenOffice.org office suite archit
ii  ttf-opensymbol         1:2.4.1-4         The OpenSymbol TrueType font
ii  zlib1g                 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-12 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages openoffice.org-base is related to:
pn  libmyodbc                     <none>     (no description available)
pn  libmysql-java                 <none>     (no description available)
pn  libpg-java                    <none>     (no description available)
pn  libsapdbc-java                <none>     (no description available)
pn  libsqliteodbc                 <none>     (no description available)
pn  mdbtools                      <none>     (no description available)
pn  odbc-postgresql               <none>     (no description available)
pn  tdsodbc                       <none>     (no description available)
pn  unixodbc                      <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information



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[Rene Engelhard]

reassign 492124 openoffice.org-core
severity 492124 wishlist
forwarded 492124 http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=6071
thanks

Hi,

Frederik Eaton wrote:
> Package: openoffice.org-base

Read the package description of -base again and retihnk whether that was
the correct package ;-)

> Version: 1:2.4.0-6

Doesn't exist anymore.

> Severity: normal

No. It's a wish -> wishlist.

> Many people are aggravated by having to look at a blinking cursor when
> they are editing a document - one web page compares it to Chinese
> water torture. I have disabled the blinking cursor in Gnome and

OMG. Torture is someting else.

> Firefox and in my terminal, but there appears to be no way to do it in
> OpenOffice. If this is true, then until there is a way, the software

OpenOffice.org.

> will be practically unusable to me and to a minority of others. This
> is an accessibility issue, which should be pretty easy to fix.

This is already told to the OOo authors in issue 6071 for 6 years now,
but as it's assigned to requirements it can only take a few years more
if at all until this is done.

Regards,

Rene



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[Rene Engelhard]

Hi,

Rene Engelhard wrote:
> > will be practically unusable to me and to a minority of others. This
> > is an accessibility issue, which should be pretty easy to fix.
>
> This is already told to the OOo authors in issue 6071 for 6 years now,
> but as it's assigned to requirements it can only take a few years more
> if at all until this is done.

Hmm. Discussion with upstream says me that OOo should also honour the
settings you did in Gnome already. Did you install openoffice.org-gtk?
Without it you don't have GTkified UI and no GTK integration.

Regards,
 
Rene



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[Frederik Eaton-3]

> > Severity: normal
>
> No. It's a wish -> wishlist.

If the bug makes the program unusable to some group of people, then
perhaps it should be

4 important       a bug which has a major effect on the usability of a package, without
                  rendering it completely unusable to everyone.

?

> > Many people are aggravated by having to look at a blinking cursor when
> > they are editing a document - one web page compares it to Chinese
> > water torture. I have disabled the blinking cursor in Gnome and
>
> OMG. Torture is someting else.

The word "torture", indeed, conjures up an image of something more
painful than annoying. That's why I prepended the words "Chinese
water". According to Wikipedia, Chinese water torture "was supposed to
drive its victim insane with the stress of water dripping on a part of
the forehead for a very long time". It doesn't sound OMG to me. For
some of those who suffer from autism or epilepsy or ADHD, and can't
"just ignore" the blinking, it must be an apt comparison. I am well
aware that most people aren't bothered by it.

> > > will be practically unusable to me and to a minority of others. This
> > > is an accessibility issue, which should be pretty easy to fix.
> >
> > This is already told to the OOo authors in issue 6071 for 6 years now,
> > but as it's assigned to requirements it can only take a few years more
> > if at all until this is done.
>
> Hmm. Discussion with upstream says me that OOo should also honour the
> settings you did in Gnome already. Did you install openoffice.org-gtk?
> Without it you don't have GTkified UI and no GTK integration.

Oh, thanks for letting me know. But ... I've tried installing
openoffice.org-gtk-gnome, openoffice.org-gnome, and
openoffice.org-gtk, and the problem persists. It doesn't look like
openoffice.org is using gtk yet though. The menubar is shaded and the
menus only have a black outline on the bottom and right sides. Do I
need to restart something?

Thank you,

Frederik



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[Rene Engelhard]

Hi,

Frederik Eaton wrote:
> The word "torture", indeed, conjures up an image of something more
> painful than annoying. That's why I prepended the words "Chinese
> water". According to Wikipedia, Chinese water torture "was supposed to
> drive its victim insane with the stress of water dripping on a part of
> the forehead for a very long time". It doesn't sound OMG to me. For

It is OMG. Because it IS torture. And comparing that with a blinking cursor
is insane.

> some of those who suffer from autism or epilepsy or ADHD, and can't
> "just ignore" the blinking, it must be an apt comparison. I am well
> aware that most people aren't bothered by it.

Indeed, but... The problem is that you can't expect any app handling
this itself. This would be insane.

> > Hmm. Discussion with upstream says me that OOo should also honour the
> > settings you did in Gnome already. Did you install openoffice.org-gtk?
> > Without it you don't have GTkified UI and no GTK integration.
>
> Oh, thanks for letting me know. But ... I've tried installing
> openoffice.org-gtk-gnome, openoffice.org-gnome, and
> openoffice.org-gtk, and the problem persists. It doesn't look like
> openoffice.org is using gtk yet though. The menubar is shaded and the
> menus only have a black outline on the bottom and right sides. Do I
> need to restart something?

That makes me think that OOo didn't detect on startup that you are under
GNOME. You *are* under GNOME (or Xfce which somehow is detected as GNOME),
right?

Otherwise, you can try export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP="gnome" before starting
OOo. (or "kde" for KDE, where the same should work, according to
upstream)

Regards,

Rene



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[Frederik Eaton-3]

> Frederik Eaton wrote:
> > The word "torture", indeed, conjures up an image of something more
> > painful than annoying. That's why I prepended the words "Chinese
> > water". According to Wikipedia, Chinese water torture "was supposed to
> > drive its victim insane with the stress of water dripping on a part of
> > the forehead for a very long time". It doesn't sound OMG to me. For
>
> It is OMG. Because it IS torture. And comparing that with a blinking cursor
> is insane.

The comparison was between water dripping on forehead, and cursor
blinking in eyes, as I imagine you understood. If you want to suggest
a better way of phrasing it, feel free to do so, but I don't see what
the big deal is. I don't believe any reasonable reader thinks that the
source I am quoting is arguing that people are being forced to use
these applications as a form of punishment, which is how you seem to
be interpreting it. The comparison was to the sensation, not the
context in which the sensation is administered.

> > some of those who suffer from autism or epilepsy or ADHD, and can't
> > "just ignore" the blinking, it must be an apt comparison. I am well
> > aware that most people aren't bothered by it.
>
> Indeed, but... The problem is that you can't expect any app handling
> this itself. This would be insane.
>
> > > Hmm. Discussion with upstream says me that OOo should also honour the
> > > settings you did in Gnome already. Did you install openoffice.org-gtk?
> > > Without it you don't have GTkified UI and no GTK integration.
> >
> > Oh, thanks for letting me know. But ... I've tried installing
> > openoffice.org-gtk-gnome, openoffice.org-gnome, and
> > openoffice.org-gtk, and the problem persists. It doesn't look like
> > openoffice.org is using gtk yet though. The menubar is shaded and the
> > menus only have a black outline on the bottom and right sides. Do I
> > need to restart something?
>
> That makes me think that OOo didn't detect on startup that you are under
> GNOME. You *are* under GNOME (or Xfce which somehow is detected as GNOME),
> right?

Nope, just gnome-settings-daemon so I can use gtk apps.

> Otherwise, you can try export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP="gnome" before starting
> OOo. (or "kde" for KDE, where the same should work, according to
> upstream)

Thanks, that works!

Frederik



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