http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2002-January/msg00431.html"The WM close button is a more difficult control to access using standard keyboard navigation techniques."
I've recently started a discussion on the Orca users list regarding this topic. My goal was to just have screen reader users provide their thoughts and then filter things to this discussion.
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/orca-list/2007-November/msg00053.htmlSo far, it's a mixed bag of responses. I'm not sure I see any polarization one way or the other.
The 2002 desktop-devel-list thread above was very enlightening to me. IMO, the sample size was rather small and I'm not sure I actually followed the path that led to the conclusions.
However, while I was aware of 'instant apply' for things like a Palm Pilot, I wasn't aware the concept had been used in these dialogs. Instead, I always expect to have to do some sort of closure action to make sure my settings are applied. At the same time, I usually assume I can always press "Escape" or something to revert things back to the way they were before I opened the dialog. This gives me the freedom to experiment and not have to remember every last thing I changed to put things back to they way they used to be.
In addition, pressing "Close" feels good to me. Pressing Alt+F4 always feels like a hammer to me: I'll usually reopen the dialog to make sure the settings "took". But, that's just one user's opinion. :-) If the hip way of the 21st century is 'less is more', I can work to adapt.
Will Calum Benson wrote:
On Wed, 2007-11-07 at 09:05 +0100, Andreas Nilsson wrote:Just found a old discussion on desktop-devel-list regarding this. http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2002-January/msg00412.htmlTold you we'd been arguing about it for a while :) Although I don't see the a11y POV represented in that thread, which is really what drove the final decision IIRC. Cheeri, Calum.