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

["Sameer Sahasrabuddhe" <sameerds gmail com>]

On 9/28/07, Lars Clausen <lars raeder dk> wrote:

> I have no problem with having F2 be one way to enter text edit mode.  My
> worry about "second click" is that it will be problematic to
> double-click for properties without accidentally entering text mode all
> the time, or vice-versa.

Yeah ... one can just have an entry in the context menu for "Edit
Text" and leave it at that ... it depends on whether a gesture
involving a mouse click is painfully important for users who already
expect such an interaction.

>  Hmm... Gnome HIG says that Alt-Enter should be
> the default shortcut for Properties.  F2 is supposed to be Rename which
> works fine in some cases, when the text is a name, but a pure text
> object doesn't have a name as such.  "Enter" or "Space" could also both
> reasonably be used for entering text mode, since they don't conflict
> with anything else.  If "Alt-Enter" is Properties, then "Enter" would be
> fairly logical for editing.  "Enter" text and such... I think I'd rather
> have that listed in the menu than F2.

The thing to consider here is that F2 is close to the left hand, which
leaves the right hand still on the mouse. That is why I had hijacked
Michael's post where he says heavy users of CAD tools are used to
finding their left hand on the keyboard. I had said that in a previous
iteration of this discussion too ... having the shortcut on the left
hand is at least useful to some subset of users ... Enter doesn't have
that plus point on its side.

Also, quoting the Gnome HIG:

  Rename  F2  Switch the selected item's label into edit mode,
                       allowing user to type in a new name.

All I am saying is that the "action" here is very very close to
editing the text in a text object. Replace "label" and "name" with
"text", and you have the same description. I am not an expert in HCI,
but "affordance" has more to do with the appearance of things than
their meaning in a user interface. In that sense, when you have a
window with a few objects floating in it, each with some text
associated with it, those objects afford a certain interface. The
objects could be files in a browser window, or the text objects in a
diagram, but in either case, their appearance affords the notion of
"editable when clicked". Like I said already, I am no HCI expert, and
someone with a background in usability could say more on this.

Anyway, at the end of the day, it boils down to what is comfortable to
the users. We can always experiment in the pre versions until
something comfortable emerges.

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