Re: Alt Mouse Modifier (Was: Adaptive mode)

[Elijah Newren <newren gmail com>]

On 2/7/06, Alexey Rusakov <ktirf users sf net> wrote:
> Shaun McCance wrote:
> > On Tue, 2006-02-07 at 10:36 +1300, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
> >> As you can see by trying it, Shift is already used for contiguous
> >> selection, Ctrl is used for non-contiguous selection, and Alt is
> >> (unfortunately) used to move the window. But a modifier key wouldn't be
> >> necessary if the behavior described above was implemented.
> >
> > Just a me-too on how unfortunate the Alt modifier
> > thing for window moving is.  I know of at least
> > one major piece of third-party software that uses
> > Alt as a modifier for certain mouse operations,
> > and it's been doing so since long before Gnome
> > stole it for window movement.

Maya?  Or is there another?

> > I always switch it to Super, but I never use it.
> > There doesn't seem to be a "just turn this off,
> > please" check box.
>
> I always switch to Super, too, and use it very frequently. And I, too,
> use Alt-clicking in some applications. The problem is that some
> keyboards have no Super, or its equivalent.

Yes, but is that such a big problem?  Few users even know that it
exists (and, in fact, it affects usability decisions because we can't
depend on users knowing about it) so why is it considered essential
enough that it has to be Alt?

I personally think that Super should have remained as the default, but
given how long it has been Alt, changing (again) would probably do
more harm than good.

Anyway, for historical reference, see:
  - https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=80918
  - http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=101151
  - http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=79315#c10
Especially important for understanding my comment about changing again
being bad would be
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=79315#c10.