Re: Focus conflicts with Space as playcontrol

[Stefan Westerfeld <stefan space twc de>]

   Hi!

On Thu, Jun 08, 2017 at 06:48:04PM +0200, Tim Janik wrote:
> I've been looking into supporting 'Space' for playback start/stop in ebeast.
> The main issue I run into is that it conflicts with other editing and navigation.
>
> Now hotkey processing for Space or unmodified letters can be implemented so that
> it doesn't interfere with text field editing. As long as you change the name of
> a component, you simply can't use 'P' to start playback or Space to stop
> playback. But where it really breaks down is focus handling. Basically a window
> that uses Space (or Enter) as hotkeys is fundamentally incompatible with focus
> based keyboard navigation as Space is used to activate the currently focussed
> widget (could be a button or a list item or anything else).
>
> Now focussing is really something I don't want to give up on, keyboard handling
> can be a lot more efficient than mousing, touchscreen handling or mouse pad
> navigation. For instance think about navigating through a list of
> files/instruments with the cursor keys, focus is needed for that.
>
> I'd appreciate to hear ideas for this problem, do all other trackers/programs
> that use Spacebar as playback hotkey completely forego the focus concept?

No. I tested Bitwig2.1 and Qtractor0.8.1. Both have space => play. Both have
focusing. Bitwig activates selected item only on Return, Qtractor appears to
accept Return or Enter.

Ardour5.8 seems to have space sometimes mean play and sometimes activating the
selected/focused item (in menus and such). However I believe this may rather be
a bug than a feature.

   Cu... Stefan
-- 
Stefan Westerfeld, http://space.twc.de/~stefan