Encapsulate NVDA state write paths

[seanbudd]

Link to issue number:

None

Summary of the issue:

NVDA uses a variety of paths to write to.
These can be hard to discover or track in the code, as write paths are not stored in globally available named symbols.
For example, if a developer wishes to find code instances where NVDA writes to the profile config directory, searching "profile" will yield additional results, e.g. code comments.

Description of user facing changes

N/A

Description of development approach

Created a centralised class to list all available write paths in NVDA.
This improves discoverability of write paths.

Testing strategy:

Ran NVDA, tested saving some config options.

Known issues with pull request:

None

Change log entries:

For Developers

``speechDictHandler.speechDictVars.speechDictsPath`` is deprecated, instead use ``WritePaths.speechDictsDir``

Code Review Checklist:

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

[ultrasound1372]

I have a known issue to this, do I submit it here or create a new issue? This is an API breaking change that unexpectedly broke some add-ons available, I think, through the store. At least one of them.

[seanbudd]

Please create a new issue - thanks

[ruifontes]

@ultrasound1372 , if you are talking about applicationDictionary add-on, I have already noticed the problem and we are going to fix that still this week...

[ultrasound1372]

That and enhanced dictionaries. Looking at the code it looks like there is supposed to be an alias and deprecation warning but it doesn't seem to work.

[ruifontes]

@ultrasound1372 , it works, but the information given by @seanbudd is missleading...
You have to use:
speechDictHandler.WritePaths.speechDictsDir
and not only WritePaths.speechDictsDir...

[ruifontes]

@seanbudd , if this broke, at least two add-ons, it should not be done in 2024.1?
Normally, it should remain as a deprecation untill 2024.1, but in the new Alphas the old way do not work at all...

[seanbudd]

As mentioned earlier - please open an issue so we can track this.

Note, that removing relative imports is not an API breaking change. API consumers should import symbols from the original place.

For example, WritePaths should be imported from NVDAState, not speechDictHandler. speechDictsDir should have originally been imported from speechDictHandler.speechDictVars not speechDictHandler directly. The alias and deprecation warning should work correctly if the add-on's original import was from the correct module.