Re: Patch for Delete key behavior (for dia-0.96.1)

[Hans Breuer <hans breuer org>]

On 25.09.2007 14:51, Sameer Sahasrabuddhe wrote:
> On 9/22/07, Hans Breuer <hans breuer org> wrote:
>
> > On 22.09.2007 00:42, Ondrej Mikle wrote:
> > > I send a patch for the Delete key behavior in Dia. It is remapped to
> > > Ctrl+Delete (or remap it some other suitable shortcut), since a lot of
> > > people find it annoying that pressing Delete while editing text deletes
> > > the object.
> > Indeed differnt people have tried to fix this problem ;) In Dia's stone age
> >  deleting objects was bound to Ctrl+D for exactly this reason. Than the
> > more natural Delete key was used giving us the described regression.
> > But falling back to some other 'random' hotkey for deleting objects is not
> > the right solution, just a workaround.
>
> I hate to be "sez who" guy on this, but why is Delete considered "more natural"?
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=97899
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=105081

Looks like at least Lars and Alan are saying so. And even I tend to agree
having about four releases with Delete bound to delete objects. BTW: next
time instead of "sez who" just do search bugzilla youself ;)
[ product: dia, every status, summary contains 'Delete' ]

Another good place to look at is the Gnome Human Interface Guideline:

http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/input-keyboard.html#standard-shortcuts

        "Delete :: Del  :: Delete selection"

> > The real fix would be some managment of text edit mode, where all the
> > usuful keys (not only Delete but also cursor keys, Home, End) are bound to
> > text editing as one is used by other programs.
>
> It might be too hasty to dismiss remapping to a different key as just
> a workaround. 
Nothing hasty here. See: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=115549

> It could be considered as a very important usability
> fix, unless there is a tangible time frame within which the work on
> text edit mode will fix this particular usability pain.
>
> > > Those are just minor nuisances, but fixing the delete key behavior makes
> > > working with Dia much more comfortable.
>
> I believe there are far too many users who would agree with this statement.
I don't wanna believe, I wanna know ;)

> > Although I'm sometimes bitten by deleting the whole object although I only
> > wanted to edit text for me deleting objects via Ctrl+Delete wouldt take
> > away more comfort than making the small text editing improvement.
>
> Given the previous paragraph, I don't agree that Ctrl+Delete or Ctrl+D
> would take away comfort. 
Why not just bind it to ctrl+alt+backspace for Linux and ctrl+alt+delete
for windoze?

> I am willing to bet that a huge majority of
> Dia users have been bitten by this bug and find it uncomfortable every
> single time they use Dia. It also seems natural to me that diagrams
> that in fact don't contain text objects are very very rare, and also
> the users who handle such diagrams.
Guessing, just guessing. The dups on bug #115549 are not *that* often.

> I suggest that mapping "Ctrl+D" to delete objects should be seriously
> considered as an interim fix. 
Before suggesting a new hotkey please try at first what it currently does.
And propose a new hotkey for that and so on ;)

> Given the cut-copy-paste triplet of
> shortcuts, "Ctrl+D" is not a big thing to learn, and it solves a very
> important user discomfort without waiting for some larger fix.
Are you sure this is a larger fix? Maybe there are low hanging fruits if
one does not shoot for the all new, all covering new text editing system?

        Hans

-------- Hans "at" Breuer "dot" Org -----------
Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to
get along without it.                -- Dilbert