Deprecations for 2021.1

[seanbudd]

A ticket to manage and track the code removal for upcoming deprecations in the 2021.1 release

• Fix misleading log message for aria-current="true" #11782 (API breaking change)

- 'NVDAObject' (and derivatives) property 'isCurrent' now strictly returns 'controlTypes.IsCurrent'. It is no longer Optional, and thus will not return None. When an object is not current 'controlTypes.IsCurrent.NO' is returned. (#11782)
- The 'controlTypes.isCurrentLabels' has been removed, instead use the 'displayString' property on a 'controlTypes.IsCurrent' enum value. EG 'controlTypes.IsCurrent.YES.displayString' (#11782)

• V2 of refactor LiveText to use diff-match-patch #11639 (API breaking change)

- `LiveText._getTextLines` has been removed. Instead, override `_getText` which returns a string of all text in the object. (#11639)
- `LiveText` objects can now calculate diffs by character. To forcibly modify this for a particular object, override the `diffAlgo` property (see the docstring for details). (#11639)

• Use enum for speech reason #10703 (work done in Convert NVDA's code base to use output reasons from enum in controlTypes and remove deprecated REASON_* module level constants #11969)

- Module level  `REASON_*` constants are removed from `controlTypes` - please use `controlTypes.OutputReason` instead. (#11969)
- `REASON_QUICKNAV` has been removed from `browseMode` - use `controlTypes.OutputReason.QUICKNAV` instead. (#11969)

• Add a script to oopen NVDA config directory #10493 (work done in: Remove deprecated functions from the config module #11935)

- The following functions are removed from the config module (#11935): 
   - `canStartOnSecureScreens` - use `config.isInstalledCopy` instead.
   - `hasUiAccess` and `execElevated` - use them from the `systemUtils` module.
   - `getConfigDirs` - use `globalVars.appArgs.configPath` instead

• Improve working with message lists and calendars in Outlook #7949 (work done in remove winKernel.GetTimeFormat, winKernel.GetDateFormat and usages #12139)

 - `winKernel.GetTimeFormat` has been removed - use `winKernel.GetTimeFormatEx` instead (#12139)
 - `winKernel.GetDateFormat` has been removed - use `winKernel.GetDateFormatEx` instead (#12139)

• e8f8a89 (work done in remove DriverSettingsMixin alias for AutoSettingsMixin #12144)

- `gui.DriverSettingsMixin` has been removed - use `gui.AutoSettingsMixin` (#12144)

• Refactor more speech functions #10593 (work done in remove getSpeechForSpelling alias for getSpellingSpeech #12145)

- `speech.getSpeechForSpelling` has been removed - use `speech.getSpellingSpeech` (#12145)

• Refactor for cancellable speech #11049, Speech commands use sequences #10371, Cancellable speech #10885 (work done in Deprecate import of Commands directly from speech module in favour of speech.commands #12126)

- Commands cannot be directly imported from speech as `import speech; speech.ExampleCommand()` or `import speech.manager; speech.manager.ExampleCommand()` - use  `from speech.commands import ExampleCommand` instead (#12126)

• sayAll skim reading no longer keeps announcing exiting initial control fields #10878 (work done in implement deprecation of SAYALL behaviour for speakTextInfo #12150)

- `speakTextInfo` will no longer send speech through `speakWithoutPauses` if reason is `SAYALL`, as `sayAllhandler` does this manually now. (#12150)

• Remove reference cycles in contentRecog objects #11510 (work done in TextInfos must inherit from BaseContentRecogTextInfo #12157)

- Support of `TextInfo`s that do not inherit from `contentRecog.BaseContentRecogTextInfo` is removed (#12157)

• 4fd4fb4 (work done in controlTypes: Remove deprecated ROLE_EQUATION #12164)

- `ROLE_EQUATION` has been removed from controlTypes - use `ROLE_MATH` instead (#12164)

• Add a graphical user interface for the vision framework #10082 (work done in Use DriverSetting classes from autoSettingUtils rather than from driverHandler #12168)

- `driverSetting` classes are removed from `driverHandler` - please use them from `autoSettingUtils` (#12168)

• don't rely on star imports from synthDriverHandler #12172 (breaking change)

- the `synthDriverHandler` module is no longer star imported into `globalCommands` and `gui.settingsDialogs`  - use `from synthDriverHandler import synthFunctionExample` instead. (#12172)

• Refactor more speech functions #10593 (work done in Remove backwards compat aliases from PR 10593 #12195)

- `speech.speakWithoutPauses` has been removed - please use `speech.SpeechWithoutPauses(speakFunc=speech.speak).speakWithoutPauses` instead. (#12195)
- `speech.re_last_pause` has been removed - please use `speech.SpeechWithoutPauses.re_last_pause` instead. (#12195)

• Move some classes from the main gui module. #12105 (breaking change)

- `WelcomeDialog`, `LauncherDialog` and `AskAllowUsageStatsDialog` are moved to the `gui.startupDialogs` (#12105)
- `getDocFilePath` has been moved from `gui` to the `documentationUtils` module. (#12105)

• Split IAccessibleHandler and Add tests for OrderedWinEventLimiter #10934 (work done in Remove backwards compat code from IAccessibleHandler #12232)

- IAccessibleHandler no longer star imports everything from IAccessible and IA2 COM interfaces - please use them directly.

• remove wx.CENTER_ON_SCREEN and wx.CENTRE_ON_SCREEN #12309

- `wx.CENTRE_ON_SCREEN` and `wx.CENTER_ON_SCREEN` is deprecated, use `self.CentreOnScreen()` instead. 

• Introduce winVersion.WinVersion class to record Windows version information, removing winVersion.isWin10 function #11909 (work done in WinVersion class follow-up: remove ease of access is supported flag #12222)

[lukaszgo1]

* [x]  #10703, #10732 (work done in #11969)

#10732 has not been fixed yet. #11969 only removed code marked as deprecated in #10703.

[seanbudd]

Thanks @lukaszgo1, I think I misread something

[codeofdusk]

@seanbudd Just curious, do you have any relationship with NV Access?

[seanbudd]

Hi @codeofdusk, yes, I'm a recent software developer hire at NV Access. I'll have a short introduction about me in an upcoming newsletter.

edit: here it is!

[lukaszgo1]

I've grepped the sources for "backwards compat" in addition to "deprec" and it turns out there are a few more places which come up.

• Deprecated ROLE_EQUATION from 4fd4fb4 - I've created controlTypes: Remove deprecated ROLE_EQUATION #12164 to remove it.
• Various imports were kept for backwards compatibility in the driverHandler - they were introduced by Add a graphical user interface for the vision framework #10082 - I've created Use DriverSetting classes from autoSettingUtils rather than from driverHandler #12168 to clean them up.

There are two more which are in my view worth discussing:

• PR Split IAccessibleHandler and Add tests for OrderedWinEventLimiter #10934 refactored IAccessibleHander - this necessitated importing various stuff just to preserve backwards compat - can these be cleaned up?
• In PR Refactor more speech functions #10593 @feerrenrut created speakWithoutPauses as an alias for _speakWithoutPauses.speakWithoutPauses and re_last_pause as an alias for _speakWithoutPauses.re_last_pause. @feerrenrut What you intended to do with these? On the one hand
  there are according to comments kept for backwards compatibility but on the other they're pointing to the private classes inside speech.

[feerrenrut]

Thanks @lukaszgo1. Yes, these alias's with comments "kept for backwards compatibility" should be removed.

[seanbudd]

I saw Issue #10916 and PR #12105 as other ones worth discussing/adding to this list of deprecations/breaking changes.

[seanbudd]

There are two more which are in my view worth discussing:

• PR Split IAccessibleHandler and Add tests for OrderedWinEventLimiter #10934 refactored IAccessibleHander - this necessitated importing various stuff just to preserve backwards compat - can these be cleaned up?
• In PR Refactor more speech functions #10593 @feerrenrut created speakWithoutPauses as an alias for _speakWithoutPauses.speakWithoutPauses and re_last_pause as an alias for _speakWithoutPauses.re_last_pause. @feerrenrut What you intended to do with these? On the one hand there are according to comments kept for backwards compatibility but on the other they're pointing to the private classes inside speech.

@lukaszgo1 Given Reef's clarification, were you looking at fixing these? Happy to pick them up if not.

[lukaszgo1]

I'll look into them either later today or during the weekend.

[seanbudd]

I'm going to start on removing the backwards compatibility introduced in #10934 tomorrow, if you haven't already started on it

[lukaszgo1]

I'm going to start on removing the backwards compatibility introduced in #10934 tomorrow, if you haven't already started on it

I've written most of the code already - it is available in IAccessibleHandlerNoStarImportsForCOMInterfaces on my fork. I'll finish it off as soon as I can.