Re: vi bindings for text widgets

[Steve Hosgood <iisteve iiweeble swan ac uk>]

On Tue, Jul 07, 1998 at 07:35:26PM -0400, Pat Rogan wrote:
> What if there was one big GTK_EDIT_MODE variable in the ~/.gtk file that
> had exactly 3 options?
>
>   emacs
>   vi
>   windoz
>
> Then EVERYBODY'S happy...

George wrote:
> why should we tell the user what to do ... I don't get that logic ...

Pat again:
> I get it, but don't agree with it.  This exampe was a compromise for the
> one person who didn't think the user should have any say in how his
> environment works....
>

I think that must be me :)
Don't get me wrong guys. I'm not against user choice, I'm against supporting
user choices to the tune of increasing code bloat. I've been playing
devil's advocate to some degree to help find exactly to what extent people
regard user-configuration to be a Good Thing. Interestingly, John Looney goes
on to say almost exactly what I just said to George in a direct email:

> It's one thing to offer people keybindings to start-of-line and delete-word -
> but Vi's modal state is something quite difficult to implement, and I'm not
> sure it has it's place in the "lowest common denominator" editor widget
> that has it's place in GUIs.

Back to Pat again: 
> I basically do agree with George here.  This is UNIX.  UNIX always lets
> you do what you want [...] With
> windows, Microsoft is always "right" (so to speak).  I don't believe the
> goal here is to turn unix into wondoz, but i might be mistaken.
>

There must be a sensible balance to be found amongst all of this. I'm sure
we *don't* want to use GTK to help turn unix into Windoze, but at the same
time there are some advantages to the very "samey" look and feel you get
from Windoze:

1) You can write books on how to use things, or teach courses on such subjects
with confidence that your students will be able to use what they've learnt
outside the classroom.

2) If you're employing staff, the fact that they already know the general
mentality of Windoze from elsewhere cuts your training costs.

3) If you pick up a new Windoze application from somewhere, and you've
never seen it before, chances are that you can at least sort-of drive it
to do a few things. I don't know if I'm extra thick or something, but when
I picked up a copy of Gimp to play with, I had *no idea* how to get it to
do *anything* useful! Indeed - I still can't. I've never seen such a baroque
interface to a program, and I've heard the same from colleagues who've
bothered to read the manual *and* knew how to drive Adobe Photoshop (which
is allegedly a rather similar thing).


This is where my other comments about a lack of style guide came from. I find
it difficult to believe that encouraging excessive user-configurability
either helps to keep the code small or helps make programs easier to
learn. Nor will it help encourage new users towards GTK applications.

P.S:
Do any of you harbour a secret desire to "configure" the pedals on your cars
away from the standard (clutch, brake, accelerator)? :-)

--

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--------------------------------------------+  even if you took Steve's law of
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