Add "Only in edit controls" mode for typing echo #17505

cary-rowen · 2024-12-11T23:26:52Z

Link to issue number:

Summary of the issue:

Currently NVDA can only toggle typing echo (characters and words) on or off globally. Users want more granular control to only have typing feedback in edit controls, while keeping it off in other contexts like listss or non-edit areas.

Description of user facing changes

Added a new option "Only in edit controls" for both "Speak typed characters" and "Speak typed words" settings in Keyboard Settings
Instead of checkboxes, these are now combo boxes with three options:
- Off: No typing echo
- On: Echo all typed text
- Only in edit controls: Only echo text typed in edit fields
Updated relevant documentation in the user guide

Description of development approach

The implementation:

Added a TypingEcho enum in configFlags.py with values:
- OFF (0)
- ON (1)
- EDIT_CONTROLS (2)
Changed keyboard typing echo configuration from boolean to integer values
Updated speech.py, behaviors.py and inputComposition.py to use the new enum
Modified settings dialog to use combo box instead of checkbox
Updated documentation

Testing strategy:

Tested the following scenarios:

Basic functionality:

Open Notepad (edit control)
- Set to "Only in edit controls"
- Type text - should be announced
- Verify both character and word echo settings
Explorer file lists(non-edit control)
- Type text - should not be announced
Test all three modes (Off, On, Only in edit controls)

Different contexts:

Web browser input fields
Rich text editors
Read-only text areas
Terminal windows

Known issues with pull request:

None identified.

Code Review Checklist:

Documentation:
- Change log entry
- User Documentation
- Developer / Technical Documentation
- Context sensitive help for GUI changes
Testing:
- Unit tests
- System (end to end) tests
- Manual testing
UX of all users considered:
- Speech
- Braille
- Low Vision
- Different web browsers
- Localization in other languages / culture than English
API is compatible with existing add-ons.
Security precautions taken.

@coderabbitai summary

Adriani90 · 2024-12-11T23:37:03Z

Great work on this, thank you.

Adriani90 · 2024-12-11T23:40:43Z

I think this needs a changelog entry as well.

AppVeyorBot · 2024-12-12T00:15:37Z

PASS: Translation comments check.
PASS: License check.
PASS: Unit tests.
FAIL: Lint check. See test results and lint artifacts for more information.
PASS: System tests (tags: installer NVDA).
Build (for testing PR): https://ci.appveyor.com/api/buildjobs/2b1503020gqhri7g/artifacts/output/l10nUtil.exe nvda_snapshot_pr17505-34744,8a5bed98.exe
CI timing (mins):
INIT 0.0,
INSTALL_START 1.2,
INSTALL_END 0.9,
BUILD_START 0.0,
BUILD_END 25.6,
TESTSETUP_START 0.0,
TESTSETUP_END 0.3,
TEST_START 0.0,
TEST_END 18.7,
FINISH_END 0.1

See test results for failed build of commit 8a5bed9868

AppVeyorBot · 2024-12-12T03:38:12Z

PASS: Translation comments check.
PASS: License check.
PASS: Unit tests.
FAIL: Lint check. See test results and lint artifacts for more information.
PASS: System tests (tags: installer NVDA).
Build (for testing PR): https://ci.appveyor.com/api/buildjobs/8dcauldlcfjvaodn/artifacts/output/l10nUtil.exe nvda_snapshot_pr17505-34752,259e6d54.exe
CI timing (mins):
INIT 0.0,
INSTALL_START 1.2,
INSTALL_END 0.9,
BUILD_START 0.0,
BUILD_END 24.6,
TESTSETUP_START 0.0,
TESTSETUP_END 0.3,
TEST_START 0.0,
TEST_END 18.6,
FINISH_END 0.2

See test results for failed build of commit 259e6d5452

CyrilleB79 · 2024-12-12T09:28:44Z

Very nice addition @cary-rowen! Thanks.

I have some questions:

Shouldn't there be a config upgrade? I.e. a value in the old config should remain in the new one.
I think that "Only in edit controls" should become the default behaviour; I guess that most people would be happy and moreover, it's a security fix as described in NVDA reading out words it shouldn't if 'speak typed words' is on #10331.
If NV Access reviewers (@SaschaCowley or @seanbudd) do not accept the new behaviour to be the default for now, should we use a feature flag to be able to change the default in the future?
With the new option, can typing be heard when typing in an edit field but when text is not actually written, e.g.:
- In cmd, when initiating an ssh connection, typing the password outputs no visible character
- In a read-only edit field, e.g. the synth field of NVDA speech settings panel.

nvdaes

@cary-rowen , thanks for this.
I think that you may add a helper function in globalCommands, similar to the toggleBooleanValue function, for config flags, and use it for toggling typed characters and words.
For reference, see toggleBooleanValue in globalCommands.py, introduced in PR #16994

…olean to integer conversion.

cary-rowen · 2024-12-12T23:13:47Z

Hi @CyrilleB79
Thank you for your review! I'd like to clarify your last point about special input scenarios. Are you asking whether the new "Only in edit controls" option works as expected in these cases:

When typing passwords in cmd during SSH connection:

Should typed characters be announced in this case?

In read-only edit fields (like the synthesizer field in NVDA speech settings):

Though it looks like an edit field, it's read-only
I've tested that typed characters are not announced here with the new option, as no text can be entered
Is this the expected behavior?

Could you please confirm if these behaviors are what you're asking about, and what the expected behavior should be in these cases?

Many thanks

cary-rowen · 2024-12-12T23:16:40Z

Regarding default settings, I'd also love to hear suggestions from NV Access, I'd personally like to see new options provided as defaults for the same reasons as @CyrilleB79.

@nvdaes
Thanks for your suggestion, I will implement a helper method to simplify the code.

CyrilleB79 · 2024-12-13T07:02:23Z

@cary-rowen IMO, the expected behaviour with the new option in ssh password case and in read-only edit fields such as synthesizer is that NVDA should not speak anything since nothing is actually visible on the screen.

amirmahdifard · 2024-12-13T12:07:18Z

thaaaaanks! should I really beleave that from now on we can get rid of the t. This pc 10 of 18, or space. playback stopped, and space. Playback resumed, with out needing to install the best ever addon made by @cary-rowen that addon was the best, because I alwayes liked and needed to keep typed characters and words, but I hated how they are announced everywhere, I was thinking, how stupid, the option it self is called speeck ('"typed"') characters and words, but why whe were hearing it everywhere? whe are not typing anything! whe are using our keyboard to use and explor our computer! but from now on, at least we don't have to use an addon to solv this really annoying this. And, really thank you @cary-rowen for resolving such problem for us until now. befor your addon releace on the stor, I was using an old and less buggy vertion of an unknown addon called typing settings to solv this for my self. greate feature!

Adriani90 · 2024-12-13T12:54:58Z

@cary-rowen speaking typed characters outside of edit fields does not make sense anyway, because they are not typed, but only pressed. For that we have the input help feature already if people need to learn the keyboard layout outside of edit fields.
So unless there is a valid use case for having characters being spoken outside of edit fields,
Why don't you just change the current setting when enabled to be valid only for edit fields?
In this case we could let it be a checkbox and don't need three options.

amirmahdifard · 2024-12-13T15:09:05Z

@Adriani90 hi. No, I also don't agree for removal of that in my opinion because, input help is a thing, but this is stil needed for some people where they need to press some keys and need to be announced for them what they've preased and what came up, or what happened as a result, while some newbie people need to turn on input help, press a fue keys that they need, and turn of input help, and make sure they've pressed or pressing the correct key. Also, for a groupe of users with old habit, better to not remove it but rename it instead for example, from on, to everywhere. so the options are as folows. off, in edit boxes only, everywhare.

cary-rowen · 2024-12-17T02:52:15Z

@CyrilleB79
wrote:

the expected behaviour with the new option in ssh password case and in read-only edit fields such as synthesizer is that NVDA should not speak anything since nothing is actually visible on the screen.

I agree that there shouldn't be any feedback in the read-only edit box after enabling the new options introduced by this PR. This is currently as expected.
However, I would like to have feedback when typing the password in ssh, unlike other password fields, in the normal password field NVDA will report 'star' when typing the password.
In the SSH password field, the characters are actually entered, they are just not displayed, unlike read-only fields (which do not produce any input)

cc @seanbudd

cary-rowen · 2024-12-17T02:53:47Z

I agree with @amirmahdifard I am totally not in favor of removing the original mode.

CyrilleB79 · 2024-12-17T07:55:28Z

I agree that there shouldn't be any feedback in the read-only edit box after enabling the new options introduced by this PR. This is currently as expected. However, I would like to have feedback when typing the password in ssh, unlike other password fields, in the normal password field NVDA will report 'star' when typing the password. In the SSH password field, the characters are actually entered, they are just not displayed, unlike read-only fields (which do not produce any input)

It's worth noting that visually, nothing appears on the screen. It's quite a bad design IMO, because users cannot know if and how many characters they enter (or delete) when pressing a key. Though, sighted people and blind ones are equally impacted in this case. IMO, this issue should not be a reason to hold off this PR.

amirmahdifard · 2024-12-17T13:07:02Z

@cary-rowen but, if you haven't allready, please rename the "on" to everywhere" because on does not have any meaning anymore in this cace, because both ways are on, but we are only indicating where to announce the characters and words. In edit boxes only, everywhere, or off "do not announce anywhere at all". Thanks. Once that's done, this pr is completely done and ok like the addons which were tryed to impliment this feature. this is ready to go and i'm gonna excitedly wait for the next releace which I can uninstall addon and have this feature natively with in nvda it self.

XLTechie · 2024-12-21T09:20:59Z

Not very important, but Rather than "Everywhere", I would probably call it "Always" to contrast with the "Only" of "Only in edit controls". I personally agree with the suggestion to make "only" the new default, or upgraded version of the current "enabled" state. By far, I think this is what users would have wanted "enabled" to mean all along, and it doesn't seem to be a very harmful change even if someone dislikes it.

XLTechie · 2024-12-21T09:37:00Z

However, I would like to have feedback when typing the password in ssh

Doesn't the "Speak passwords in all enhanced terminals" setting in Advanced, already cover this situation?

cary-rowen · 2025-01-01T14:31:26Z

@XLTechie
I agree using "Always" which is also more common in NVDA.

Doesn't the "Speak passwords in all enhanced terminals" setting in Advanced, already cover this situation?

Yes, I guess it makes intuitive sense that we should report passwords in this mode as long as the user explicitly enables the Report Passwords option in the advanced settings.

SaschaCowley

Could the "everywhere" mode be renamed to "always" as others have suggested, too?

user_docs/en/changes.md

user_docs/en/userGuide.md

source/config/configSpec.py

source/speech/speech.py

source/gui/settingsDialogs.py

user_docs/en/userGuide.md

source/config/profileUpgradeSteps.py

CyrilleB79 · 2025-01-07T13:25:40Z

source/gui/settingsDialogs.py

-		# Translators: This is the label for a checkbox in the
-		# keyboard settings panel.
-		charsText = _("Speak typed &characters")
-		self.charsCheckBox = sHelper.addItem(wx.CheckBox(self, label=charsText))


Should the removal of self.charsCheckBox be documented in the API breaking changes of the change log? Idem for words?

Though, I am not sure that we have always respected the API when modifying the GUI in non-.1 releases in the past...

I think we should do this to be safe.

source/gui/settingsDialogs.py

source/speech/speech.py

cary-rowen · 2025-01-08T04:06:18Z

Thanks @SaschaCowley and @CyrilleB79 for the review.
For the upgrade step I'm wondering do I need to create a separate upgrade method?
For example, upgradeConfigFrom_14_to_15

As @CyrilleB79 commented:

Should the removal of self.charsCheckBox be documented in the API breaking changes of the change log? Idem for words?
Though, I am not sure that we have always respected the API when modifying the GUI in non-.1 releases in the past...

I'm not sure about this.

source/config/profileUpgradeSteps.py

SaschaCowley

Please also update the copyright headers of any files you have touched to reflect that they have been modified in 2025.

SaschaCowley · 2025-01-09T03:59:03Z

source/config/configFlags.py

+	ALWAYS = 1
+	EDIT_CONTROLS = 2


Can these be swapped?

It feels more intuitive to me that less reporting should be a lower value.

I think the order in the UI should probably be "Off", "Only in edit controls", "Always".

SaschaCowley · 2025-01-09T04:00:09Z

source/config/configSpec.py

+	# 0: Off, 1: Always, 2: Only in edit controls
+	speakTypedCharacters = integer(default=2,min=0,max=2)
+	# 0: Off, 1: Always, 2: Only in edit controls
+	speakTypedWords = integer(default=2,min=0,max=2)


Please change this back to defaulting to off (0).

SaschaCowley · 2025-01-09T04:02:12Z

source/config/configSpec.py

Please bump the schema version to 15 so that alpha users don't get hit with a corrupt config.

SaschaCowley · 2025-01-09T04:20:19Z

source/globalCommands.py

-		# Translators: Input help mode message for toggle speaked typed characters command.
-		description=_("Toggles on and off the speaking of typed characters"),
+		# Translators: Input help mode message for cycling the reporting of typed words.
+		description=_("Cycle the reporting of typed characters: Off, Always, and Only in edit controls."),


Suggested change

description=_("Cycle the reporting of typed characters: Off, Always, and Only in edit controls."),

description=_("Cycles through options for when to speak typed characters."),

SaschaCowley · 2025-01-09T04:22:19Z

source/globalCommands.py


 	@script(
 		# Translators: Input help mode message for toggle speak typed words command.
-		description=_("Toggles on and off the speaking of typed words"),
+		description=_("Cycle the reporting of typed words: Off, Always, and Only in edit controls."),


Suggested change

description=_("Cycle the reporting of typed words: Off, Always, and Only in edit controls."),

description=_("Cycles through options for when to speak typed words."),

SaschaCowley · 2025-01-09T04:30:22Z

source/speech/speech.py

+	"""Check if the currently focused object is editable.
+	@return: C{True} if the focused object is editable, C{False} otherwise.
+	@rtype: bool
+	"""


Please rewrite this to be in sphinx style

Suggested change

"""Check if the currently focused object is editable.

@return: C{True} if the focused object is editable, C{False} otherwise.

@rtype: bool

"""

"""Check if the currently focused object is editable.

:return: ``True`` if the focused object is editable, ``False`` otherwise.

"""

SaschaCowley · 2025-01-09T04:33:29Z

user_docs/en/changes.md

@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ To use this feature, "allow NVDA to control the volume of other applications" mu
  * Updated CLDR to version 46.0. (#17484, @OzancanKaratas)
 * Short versions of the most commonly used command line options have been added: `-d` for `--disable-addons` and `-n` for `--lang`.
 Prefix matching on command line flags, e.g. using `--di` for `--disable-addons` is no longer supported. (#11644, @CyrilleB79)
+* The keyboard settings for "Speak typed characters" and "Speak typed words" now have three options: Off, Always, and Only in edit controls. (#17505, @Cary-rowen)


Can you please document that the new default is "Only in edit controls"?

SaschaCowley · 2025-01-09T04:34:27Z

user_docs/en/changes.md

Please document the change of config spec, and the removal of the speak typed characters/words checkboxes from the GUI, in the changes for developers.

SaschaCowley · 2025-01-09T04:36:15Z

user_docs/en/userGuide.md

@@ -2590,15 +2590,25 @@ If no key is chosen as the NVDA key it may be impossible to access many NVDA com

 Key: NVDA+2


Suggested change

Key: NVDA+2

Key: `NVDA+2`

SaschaCowley · 2025-01-09T04:36:46Z

user_docs/en/userGuide.md

+
+* Off: NVDA will not announce typed characters.
+* Always: NVDA will announce all typed characters.
+* Only in edit controls: NVDA will only announce characters typed in edit controls and other areas where text can be typed.

 <!-- KC:setting -->

 ##### Speak Typed Words {#KeyboardSettingsSpeakTypedWords}

 Key: NVDA+3


Suggested change

Key: NVDA+3

Key: `NVDA+3`

Add "Only in edit controls" mode for typing echo

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cary-rowen requested review from a team as code owners December 11, 2024 23:26

cary-rowen requested review from Qchristensen and SaschaCowley December 11, 2024 23:26

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Merge branch 'TypedWords' of github.com:cary-rowen/nvda into TypedWords

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Merge branch 'master' into TypedWords

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Update configuration schema to version 14 and add upgrade step for bo…

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…olean to integer conversion.

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Merge branch 'master' into typedWords

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Merge branch 'master' into typedWords

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Just update changes.

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Change 'On' to 'Everywhere'

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Merge branch 'master' into typedWords

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Uasof 'Everywhere, Update translator comments'e 'Always' insted

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Use 'always' instead of 'everywhere, update translator comments'

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Merge branch 'TypedWords' of github.com:cary-rowen/nvda into typedWords

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Add "Only in edit controls" mode for typing echo #17505

Add "Only in edit controls" mode for typing echo #17505

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	description=_("Cycle the reporting of typed characters: Off, Always, and Only in edit controls."),
	description=_("Cycles through options for when to speak typed characters."),

		@@ -2590,15 +2590,25 @@ If no key is chosen as the NVDA key it may be impossible to access many NVDA com

		Key: NVDA+2

Add "Only in edit controls" mode for typing echo #17505

Are you sure you want to change the base?

Add "Only in edit controls" mode for typing echo #17505

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cary-rowen commented Dec 11, 2024

Link to issue number:

Summary of the issue:

Description of user facing changes

Description of development approach

Testing strategy:

Known issues with pull request:

Code Review Checklist:

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