[Epiphany] Re: ui improvement requests

["Steve Salazar" <eagsalazar hotmail com>]

>Steve Salazar writes:
>
>>Hi.  I just started using epiphany today and I love it.  I do have a few 
>>ideas however:
>>
>>1.  When typing in the location bar, a list of possible completions is 
>>generated as you type plus the list of smart bookmarks.  To get to the 
>>drop down list you have to either use the mouse or the down arrow.  How 
>>about tab also cycles down in the list.  This is a) easier to get to than 
>>down arrow if you want to keep your hands on the keyboard, b) fits in with 
>>the tab complete meme and is more intuitive because users can actually see 
>>the completions they are going to get, 3) just like mozilla so there is an
>existing expectation from a large number of users that could be leveraged.
>>
>
>Tab completion has alot of accessibility problems, since tab needs to be 
>used to exit the entry and nav into the toolbar item, so we can't support
.that. There are lots of threads in gtk-devel, desktop=devel, usability-list
>explaining this very in depth :/ We will be using the new gtk combo impl 
>once its available though and it should be much better i assume.
>
>>2.  Similar to the first idea, could shift-tab cycle backward in the list? 
>>Also could the list wrap around when you get to the beginning or end?
>
>See above, as i recall ctrl+tab needs to cycle backward from the entry to 
>the previous toolbar button.
>

Ok.  I get that tab already has some purpose.  I agree that overloading a 
key that is essential for accesibility does not sound like a good idea.  
However,

1) in different contexts a key can mean different things.  Even tab for 
example clearly does not change element focus when in a text box right?  
Generically, tab or a modified tab (alt-tab) mean cycle when not in a text 
box.  My understanding is that tab only is for cycling between elements in a 
given form or widget.  eg. cycling between buttons on a toolbar, cycling 
between fields in a form, etc.  However, I have never heard that tab should 
cycle between forms themselves.  The common convention there is that 
ctrl-tab or ctrl-pgup ctrl-pgdown cycle between forms or larger application 
components (ala tabs or tree view to mail list in evolution).  So it seems 
like deciding weather to support tab (only tab key) completion/cycling in 
the address bar is a matter of defining whether it is part of the tool bar 
button cycling group or not.  I think it would be more useful and more 
normal to define the address bar as being a part of its own group so that 
cycling in that context would only mean cycling through address bar elements 
which would be tab completions.  To get to the tool bar from the address bar 
or to the web page from the address bar would require a ctrl-tab.

2) Even if you think my above comment is totally weak, the functionality of 
tab completion is very important and there should be an easier way to get at 
it than down arrow (which is miles away from my right pinky finger compared 
to tab).

3) Even if you don't want to support it via tabbing, or via shift tab, the 
drop down list should loop so that I can use up arrow to get to the bottom 
of the list (which can be long if you have a bunch of smart bookmarks.)


>.
>.
>.
>
>Thanks very much for the comments they are appreciated and taken seriously.
>
>dave

4) Unrelated to your previous comments but something that has come up now 
that I've been using epiphany for a few days:  When opening a new tab or 
window, the address of the newly opened tab should be displayed.  Right now 
when I start epiphany, my home page is loaded but the address bar is not 
filled in with the address of my home page.  This is also true when I do 
ctrl-t to get a new tab and I have tabs set up to display the previous page 
in the new tab.  Also, if someone has selected that option, then the new tab 
should have the history of the tab it was copied from.  I think this was in 
an old version of galeon.

5) Another cool touch to opening a window or tab with middle click would be 
to apply the history of the originating tab/window to the new tab/window.  
You can think of a new tab opened this way not as an entirely new window but 
a forking of paths from the originating window.  It seems like you get a lot 
of useful info with very little abstraction overhead in this case.  I think 
users might be surprised by this when they find it but not confused.


Thanks again.  I actually sit in front of a gnome desktop all day at work so 
epiphany is a tool that I use constantly.  Nice job.

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