Re: Re-inventing Metatheme

[Luis Villa <louie ximian com>]

Hi, Bryan-
Have you actually used GNOME2 at all? Every app that is part of the core
desktop is 100% keyboard navigable (or nearly so) and we've made great
effort to ensure that keyboard commands are consistent throughout
(ctl+c/ctl+v/ctl+x, for example.) I can't speak to the idea of one-key
commands- that's really up to the a11y and usability teams to decide if
and where those are good ideas. But if they do make such a decision
we'll do our best to implement them as quickly as possible.

Thanks for the feedback, rest assured it is an important part of our
ongoing work on usability and accessibility.

Luis

On Wed, 2002-08-28 at 11:23, Bryan Campbell wrote:
> 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!"
>