Re: [Evolution-hackers] [UI] attachment dropdown focus hijacking (mouse)

[guenther <guenther rudersport de>]

On Thu, 2003-10-16 at 19:15, Ettore Perazzoli wrote:
> On Thu, 2003-10-16 at 07:22, Calum Benson wrote:
>
> > > Hmm maybe this would be a better fix, but I am not sure.  The user still
> > > expects the vertical cursor keys to move the focus around...
> > 
> > True, I guess if you had multiple attachments, users might expect
> > vertical arrow keys to move focus to move between them rather than just
> > scrolling the page.  Having said that, we've been pretty careful since
> > the GNOME 2.0 days only to document [Shift-]Tab as the means of moving
> > focus *between* controls (even though arrow keys still kind of work in
> > most places), and arrow keys for moving focus *within* controls: see
> > http://www.gnome.org/learn/access-guide/2.2/keynav-1.html#keynav-2.  
> 
> OK, I think you convinced me.  :-)

Uhm, convinced about what point?

I am not sure, I got what you just decided, but as I am totally unhappy
with the current situation and IMHO it is totally hosed, here are some
thoughts:


Well, let me get the situation straight, as it is just now:

The user should be able, to change focus to an attachment and display it
(let me call this "open" the attachment). This should be done by
keyboard.

OK, the user is able to get all the way to the attachment and open it.
But he is not allowed to see it!

Bold statement, yeah. But attachments tend to be at the *bottom* of a
mail, and therefore only a very small portion of the attachment at the
top will be visible.

Using the up/down keys for a task the tab key already does, despoils me
to scroll down the mail and actually see the attachment I just opened.


The whole purpose of keyboard navigation is defeated and therefore
rendered useless, when I have to switch back to the *mouse* to see what
I just opened. Even worse, this breaks the UI the user is used to in 1.2
and 1.4 versions. This *is* a regression.


This even applies to the left/right arrow keys, as attachments can be
larger than the display area.

Use [shift] tab to cycle focus, but leave the arrow keys and page
up/down to the mail body!


Enabling the user to use the keyboard for focus navigation is a good
thing IMHO. But it is totally perverted here.

Let's see, what order the focus takes using the down arrow key:
 attachment dropdown -> search input field -> mail list -> next mail

So the action the user is expected to desire after opening an attachment
is searching?? The user may search, but he shall not ask for anything
else than searching on subject?? Right, the search dropdown is not
offered to have focus.

Next there is the ability to change to the next/previous message. Oh
yeah, right, the user who just opened an attachment doesn't want to see
this attachment, he wants to go to the next mail... :-/


Sorry, don't want to rant -- but this doesn't make *any* sense to me.

...guenther


-- 
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main(){ char h,m=h=*t++,*x=t+2*h,c,i,l=*x,s=0; for (i=0;i<l;i++){ i%8? c<<=1:
(c=*++x); c&128 && (s+=h); if (!(h>>=1)||!t[s+h]){ putchar(t[s]);h=m;s=0; }}}