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

["Sameer Sahasrabuddhe" <sameerds gmail com>]

Hi,

> > 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.

Ok, looked at those bugs.

> BTW: next
> time instead of "sez who" just do search bugzilla youself ;)
> [ product: dia, every status, summary contains 'Delete' ]

My mistake. Sorry about that.

> 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"

Ok. Seen that.

> > > 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

I don't know what you want me to see in that bug. But I did see two
things. Reworking the text widgets was first mentioned in June 2003,
that's more than four years ago. Also, you seem to have agreed at one
point of time that reverting to "Ctrl+D" might be a good option.

And yeah, I am inclined to conclude one thing from the bugs that you
dug out for me. To quote your own comment, its a choice between a pest
and cholera, and there is no one choice better than the other. Going
by superficial numbers, the bug about the disappearing text has far
more dupes and comments than the other two bugs about Delete being
more appropriate to delete an entire object. But that doesn't mean
anything. Only a real poll of all the users could possibly indicate
which mapping is less evil, but I believe it's not worth that effort.

This is especially true since "Ctrl-Delete" is currently used as
"Delete" when editing text.

> > 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?

Assuming a missing smiley here.

> Guessing, just guessing. The dups on bug #115549 are not *that* often.

Can't resist reiterating that the number of dupes doesn't mean
anything either way, because the fraction of users who bother to
report bugs itself is not known to represent the average opinion of
the users.

> > 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 ;)

Well, I had nothing invested in Ctrl-D, the point was simply to
suggest that remapping, and I just thought using Ctrl-D would be a
convenient roll-back.

BTW, the current function (duplicate without adding to clip-board) of
Ctrl-D should be mapped to Ctrl-U, according to the Gnome HIG. Ctrl-D
is meant for "add bookmark".

> > 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?

By larger fix, I meant the reworking of the text object, which seems
to have been thought of for quite some time now as we have just seen.
But you seem to suggest there could be a faster way to fix this, and I
am all ears. Either way, I would love to shift to this after finishing
my current task, since this would help scratch a personal itch.

> Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to
> get along without it.                -- Dilbert

Heh!

Sameer.
-- 
Research Scholar, Department of CSE, IIT Bombay
http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~sameerds/