Re: [Evolution] Next and Previous

["Anton J Aylward, CISSP" <aja si on ca>]

> Subject: Re: [Evolution] Next and Previous
> From: Ben Escoto <bescoto stanford edu>
>
>
> On Tue, 2002-07-16 at 07:47, Peter Williams wrote:
> > > The way the message and folder lists are laid out on the screen the
> > > "intuitively obvious" motion us "up and "down".
> > Well, right now up and down move one message at a time, as they should.
> > We need a way to move to the next/previous unread message.
>
> Actually, at least in my version (1.1.0.99), they move to the prev/next
> message, or move to the prev/next folder, or scroll the current message
> up/down, etc., depending on where the focus is.
>
>     I think it would be better if there were separate keybindings for
> prev/next read/unread message, and prev/next read/unread folder.=20
> Possibly up/down arrow should always scroll the current message.  It's
> too much of a pain to shift focus for the up/down arrows to have so many
> roles.

Please no!
This goes against all the accepted rules of user interface design,
man-machine interfacing, ergonomics or whatever you want to call it, not
least of the principles based on actual field research.

The "context" you describe has been found to be the way people really
work.  The meaning of "shoot" depends on whether you are holding a gun,
holding a camera, or playing soccer.

Someone (Rob Pike perhaps?) described the kind of keybinding Ben is
talking about  as having a dashboard on your car with hundreds of
buttons labeled things like "turn on radio and search for some good
music; if not found then pull over at the next drive-through donut
store".
 
If you really want all those keybindings, why don't you use EMACS as
your MUA instead of Evolution?  EMACS is good at keybinding and complex
context-insensitive operations.

/a