Re: Patch for Delete key behavior (for dia-0.96.1)

[Lars Clausen <lars raeder dk>]

On Fri, 2007-09-28 at 12:01 +0530, Sameer Sahasrabuddhe wrote:
> On 9/27/07, Michael Ross <michael e ross gmail com> wrote:
> > My early experiences with computing were with CAD programs.  Pre-Windows
> > there was AutoCad (DOS) and a number of UNIX based systems.  Heavy users of
> > CAD, which has a very strong mouse or stylus use component like Dia, would
> > quickly find that placing the left hand on the keyboard and the right on the
> > mouse and using as many left hand keystroke shortcuts as possible was the
> > most productive manner of operating the programs.
>
> Hear! Hear!
>
> Allow me to hijack this and once again root for my personal favourite
> combination: F2 and "second click" to enter text edit mode. This has
> the additional plus point that it copies a well-known key-mapping,
> from Nautilus and Explorer. In terms of user interaction, I see no
> difference between a file icon and a text object ... their appearance
> suggests the same interface for the related action of "editing text
> visible in that icon". This also does not interfere with selecting an
> object by simply clicking on it.

I have no problem with having F2 be one way to enter text edit mode.  My
worry about "second click" is that it will be problematic to
double-click for properties without accidentally entering text mode all
the time, or vice-versa.  Hmm... Gnome HIG says that Alt-Enter should be
the default shortcut for Properties.  F2 is supposed to be Rename which
works fine in some cases, when the text is a name, but a pure text
object doesn't have a name as such.  "Enter" or "Space" could also both
reasonably be used for entering text mode, since they don't conflict
with anything else.  If "Alt-Enter" is Properties, then "Enter" would be
fairly logical for editing.  "Enter" text and such... I think I'd rather
have that listed in the menu than F2.

> To exit text edit mode, I would vote for Shift-Esc as well as clicking
> elsewhere, since Esc is strongly associated with abort. We could even
> try "Enter" as an additional shortcut since that will round off the
> analogy with file renaming. It does affect the ablity to enter
> multiline text, but if we choose to do that, we can use "Ctrl-Enter"
> like Pidgin to start a new line.

"Enter" as a shortcut works fine for places where you don't expect to be
able to have newlines, which is not the case here.  I'd find it an awful
interruption of my work flow if every time I think I'm just adding a
line, I end up leaving edit mode.  Not logical at all.  I'm mainly
thinking of the fact that the user will be entering and leaving text
edit mode frequently, and Shift-Esc is awkward.  I find Esc logical for
leaving a "special mode", but I'm probably not typical:)  

-Lars