Sun Microsystems, Inc.

David P Mendenhall

Hania Gajewska

Michael C Albers

Peter Alex Korn

Lynn Monsanto

A method for delivering keystrokes to descendants of an inactive window includes remembering a descendant of the inactive window as the next focus owner when the descendant receives a focus-in event, creating a focus proxy for the inactive window and issuing a request to set focus to the focus proxy, marking the next focus owner as the true focus owner when the focus proxy receives a focus-in event, and directing the focus-in event received by the focus proxy to the true focus owner.

Method for keystroke delivery to descendants of inactive windows

A method for generating information for inclusion in focus events includes maintaining a list of components requesting focus in a selected application, determining whether a target of a first focus event matches a component at a head of the list, and if the target of the first focus event matches the component at the head of the list, marking the component at the head of the list for inclusion in an opposite field of a second focus event.

Heuristic for generating opposite information for inclusion in focus events

A method for keyboard navigation in a graphical user interface, including defining a key event dispatcher for focus ordering of at least one non-focusable component, configured to recognize a special mode entry character and a special mode exit character, upon entry of the special mode entry character by a user, entering a special mode wherein subsequent key events are manipulated by the key event dispatcher to navigate the focus ordering of the at least one non-focusable component while a current focus owner is maintained, and exiting the special mode upon entry of the special mode exit character by the user, wherein the special mode is at least one of the group consisting of an input method mode, an accessible navigation mode and a window navigation mode.

Keyboard navigation of non-focusable components

A method is described for establishing a focus traversal protocol in a graphical user interface having a plurality of components within at least one top-level window. The method includes defining the top-level window as a first focus cycle root, assigning a plurality of components to a first focus traversal cycle associated with the first focus cycle root, and for each component in the first focus traversal cycle, establishing a focus traversal key definition including a forward traversal key and a backward traversal key. The method further includes establishing a first focus traversal policy associated with the first focus traversal cycle. A windowing toolkit is also described for use by a developer in establishing a focus traversal protocol for a graphical user interface having a plurality of components within at least one top-level window. The method may also include defining one of the plurality of components of the first focus traversal cycle as a second focus cycle root, assigning a plurality of components to a second focus traversal cycle associated with the second focus cycle root, establishing a focus traversal key definition including a forward key traversal key and a backward key traversal key for each component in the second focus traversal cycle, and establishing a second focus traversal policy associated with the second focus traversal cycle. The windowing toolkit has a plurality of windowing tools each having codes suitable to be executed by a computer. The toolkit includes a first tool configured to assign a plurality of components to a first focus traversal cycle associated with a first focus cycle root, the first focus cycle root being defined as a top-level window, a second tool configured to assign a focus traversal key definition to each component in the first focus traversal cycle, the focus traversal key definition including a forward traversal key and a backward traversal key, and a third tool configured to establish a first focus traversal policy associated with the first focus traversal cycle.

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New York, NY, United States of America

David P Mendenhall