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Any APIs or apps that allow for complete keyboard navigation OS-wide, including inside apps (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by TheTwelveYearOld@lemmy.world to c/linux@sh.itjust.works

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macOS has a variety of apps like Homerow, Shortcat, and KindaVim (watch the videos in those links if u can) that allow for navigation of apps using just the keyboard. Homerow allows for pressing a hotkey and then showing letters over UI elements which can be entered to move the mouse to said element, similar to the Vim easymotion plugin. KindaVim attempts to implement vim modal navigation inside GUI apps, so you can enter normal or visual mode and use j and k to move up or down. They all work using macOS' accessibility API which exposes UI elements for programmatic interaction.

I did a bunch of searches for Linux equivalent of such apps and Mac's accessibility API, and didn't find anything as comprehensive. Can you navigate a wide variety of Linux apps using mostly or only the keyboard (apps made with GTK, Electron, etc.)? Is it currently possible to develop an equivalent of the apps listed above?

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[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

My gut feeling was that a standard accessibility protocol doesn't exist yet, but that a Wayland extension is probably the solution.

Looks like I was right: https://blogs.gnome.org/a11y/2024/06/18/update-on-newton-the-wayland-native-accessibility-project/

However that's a recent proof-of-concept, so nothing generally available at this stage. Details would have to be ironed out, changes upstreamed, the protocol extension accepted, and every graphics toolkit would have to be updated to support the protocol. Seems like a very worthy goal to pursue though and it's great to see funds allocated for a11y.

I don't know how that would work with XWayland apps, but given how clunky that gets with stuff like fractional scaling I wouldn't get my hopes up. The sooner we can native Wayland all the things, the better. X11 must die, regardless of the feeling of the graybeards on the matter.