Re: Re-inventing Metatheme

[Bryan Campbell <bryany pathcom com>]

hi All. Luis I was going to write saying Dasher is very interesting! But
with the on-going discussion of themes, which i know r important to mass
acceptance of an OS, I'm disappointed that more time isn't spent on
keyboard usability. I'm a guy whose physical disabled who types & runs
computers, over 23 years, with a headwand now on a standard Windows style
keyboard [image on http://www.opera.com/press/guides/operapower suggests
how i work]. On the Web i run Opera http://www.opera.com, besides being
fast Opera is the only browser that has the extensive, well-placed 1
keystroke commands I need to efficiently explore the Web.

People have agreed that adding 1 keystroke commands to GNOME is a good
idea. But some say that must be left to the Accessibility team work-out
while it wants to be careful not to interfere with known keyboard usage
which is necessary. Meanwhile I'm ready to begin learning Linux and GNOME,
letting me leave Windows 95 behind, yet it isn't clear the desktop will
have easy keyboard usability. Luis a team is needed to ensure keyboard
usability is dealt with in a timely fashion. Despite dominance of the mouse
there r folks that like to work quickly via the keyboard, dealing with this
aspect of usability increases the overall attractiveness of GNOME! I look
forward to working to help reach the goal.

Next is part of what is needed: T
he PC keyboard is a large & powerful component to folks working via 1 or 2
digits. Control areas mainly use Tab, Shift-Tab, & Enter to pick options to
work on, keys that r far apart producing quite a bit of work merely
traveling between keys to work on options [plus Shift-Tab using 2 keys to
give 1 command means folks have a greater chance to hit the wrong key so 3
or 4 keystrokes r needed to give 1 command]. Such extra, slow work is
eliminated from browsing with Opera since it uses the "Q & A" keys to go up
& down pick to links while typing SpaceBar loads a page.

Bringing that concept of up & down keys to GNOME control areas my thought
is using the ", & ." keys since they have the "< & >" symbols on them to
indicate how the command selector will move [Notably Windows Help files use
the "< & >" keys to turn pages in the files so this a known usage [grin]].
Importantly those keys can be added to the command structure without
disturbing anything else because they will only work once a control area
has input focus. Possible also 2 more nearby keys could be used to Open &
Close or turn On & Off command items. Thing is some blank is required
between the 2 sets of keys so that folks r that unsteady do not do anything
by mistyping, making "[ & ]" likely choices (Function keys r too far up the
keyboard for good usability). Thank for reading




Regards,
Bryan Campbell

--> "It has been said the pebbles can't stop the avalanche, guess the
pebbles didn't have access to the Web!"