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IBM Beats Microsoft Over the Head With Their Own Code

Posted by Zonk on from the ow-that-if-statement-hurts dept.

bednarz writes "IBM has added a twist to its new commitment to help OpenOffice.org battle Microsoft Office by donating code that was originally derived in part from a Microsoft-developed technology. IBM's iAccessible2, code-named Project Missouri, is a specification for technology used to help the visually impaired interact with Open Document Format (ODF)-compliant applications and was developed in part using Microsoft Active Accessibility (MAA). 'When the specification was donated to the Linux Foundation, Oracle, Sun, and SAP committed to help with future development. Mozilla is committed to incorporating it into its Firefox browser, and vendors GW Micro and Freedom Scientific will also use it in their own screen reader products. In addition, Project Missouri has won accolades from the American Association of People with Disabilities, the American Foundation for the Blind, and the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science.'"

8 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Reading incorrectly by jshriverWVU · · Score: 2, Informative

    Perhaps I read this wrong, but IBM wrote some code using Microsoft technology (IP) then plan to fuse it with the OO source tree? Does this ring a bell for anyone? Isn't this what MS has been complaining about? Not trying to troll, but this sounds odd. Maybe IBM wrote the underlying code that was later used by MS in their product, in that case this is a wonderful donation. Though the way it's worded doesnt sound right.

    1. Re:Reading incorrectly by Locutus · · Score: 2, Informative

      I believe IBM wrote some code based, in part, on a Microsoft spec for adaptive tech(MS-COM based), and in part on extensions IBM developed to that spec(iAccessible2). Basically, IBM extended an MS spec, released the combination and then implemented that in code. IBM released the extended spec to The Linux Foundation but is now releasing the implementation/code of that extended spec to the OOo group. I'm guessing that the IBM spec had some IBM license on it initially but then was given/released to the Linux Foundation under some other license.

      In much of the open standards industry, having one or two actual implementations of a spec validates the spec and provides potential adopters with proof of the specs viability and capabilities. IIRC, ISO requires implementation code for its approved specs and OMG might also. Besides validating the spec, implementations also provide test points and sample code for other implementers. Counter that with how Microsoft provides garbage specs(MS-OOXML) and no complete sample implementation code because they really don't want anybody to implement it.

      This is great news since it will eliminate one of the big talking points Microsoft has used to keep MS Office in place even when ODF was mandated( MA. ).

      LoB

      --
      "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
  2. Re:Microsoft says... Thanks! by PJ1216 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's just saying that in the war to bring down MS Office being the unofficial standard as office documents (though, is trying real hard to become a standard), MS code will play a role against MS.

    Microsoft code will be used to help out a product in direct competition with Microsoft. That's where the article headline comes from.

  3. Project name by umrguy76 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Missouri is the "Show Me" state, hence the project name. Missouri is in that vast wasteland between LA and New York City. ;)

    http://www.state.mo.us/

  4. Re:Nobdoy beats Microsoft. by JiffyPop · · Score: 2, Informative

    Do you realize what "accessibility" refers to in the context of this article? Congratulations on being 100% off-topic.

    This is about making OpenOffice.org easier to use for the disabled. Mozilla is jumping on board, too. It requires no action by Microsoft, and will add a coherent accessibility scheme to some of the most visible open source projects.

  5. The article it wrong; IBM work is not from MS IP by peterkorn · · Score: 5, Informative
    IAccessible2 is an extension to IAccessible, the core accessible object in Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA). It supplements the MS-defined information with a ton of stuff that is missing and is needed to provide real support for assistive technologies (vs. the very limited job Microsoft did). IAccessible2 is actually a port of the GNOME Accessibility API that Sun developed and brought to the GNOME community (see ATK and AT-SPI from the GNOME SVN repository). That was in turn derived from the Java Accessibility API, of which I am a co-author.

    More specifically, the IAccessible2 header files are copied almost directly from the OpenOffice.org UNO Accessibility API - the IAccessible2 headers contain a Sun copyright! See http://blogs.sun.com/korn/date/20070910 and http://blogs.sun.com/korn/date/20061214 for more on this.

  6. Re:Microsoft says... Thanks! by Stalus · · Score: 4, Informative

    I work at IBM with some of the folks that designed IA2, so let me fill in what you're missing. There is NO Microsoft-developed code here at all, AFAIK.

    Microsoft has an event system (MSAA) in Windows that is designed to pass COM objects from applications to screen readers. They also designed an interface that provides information like an object's role and label (e.g. a button labeled submit). Unfortunately, this interface (IAccessible) has been entirely inadequate, but what do you expect from something designed for Windows 95? Instead of extending the interface, Microsoft has decided to pursue UI Automation, which screen readers don't/can't support yet.

    IBM used their experience to design a more complete interface, named IAccessible2. They then showed how you can use the Windows MSAA event system to pass around COM objects that can expose the IAccessible2 interface. Then, they worked with screen reader manufacturers and other companies (Microsoft didn't participate AFAIK) to make sure there was a complete solution - an interface is useless if no one uses it.

    Now, for the part Open Office cares about - The real code for OO.org is that you have to implement these interfaces for all of your widgets. For Lotus Note 8, IBM used editors similar to Open Office and implemented and tested this interface for all of these widgets (menus, rich text, yadda yadda). Now IBM is donating some of that code, which has the potential to make Open Office more accessible and more robust with screen readers than Word.

  7. Re:The article it wrong; IBM work is not from MS I by peterkorn · · Score: 4, Informative
    Bill,

    This is precisely why the license for OOo changed to LGPL (which happened just prior to OOo 2.0). Under the previous license, code did not need to be contributed back (and the OOo derived functionality in IBM's Lotus Notes 8 came from OOo 1.9.x). The big news in the IBM announcement is that IBM is returning to the community from whence it forked OOo, and contributing back (many? most? all) of their changes. One thing that is being highlighted (and discussed in this thread and erroneously attributed to a Microsoft original source) is that among their first contributions back is the newly created by them Windows edition of the accessibility work that they derived from OOo.