Re: [Evolution] custom keybindings (was Re: Again: Newbie questions/comments)

[Jeffrey Stedfast <fejj ximian com>]

On Fri, 2002-07-19 at 13:49, Brett Johnson wrote:
> On Thu, 2002-07-18 at 15:37, Jeffrey Stedfast wrote:
>
> > anyways, I can't think of a single gui client that allows you to rebind
> > keys to different actions.
>
> You must be joking, right?  Lesse, off the top of my head, these are a
> few mail/news GUI clients that I'm familiar with which let you remap
> keybindings (and pretty much all text-based clients allow it):
>
>         * Netscape 4.x (although you have to edit X resources to do it)

lesse, if you want to count having to edit a file then Evolution also
allows users to change their keybindings, so I guess we're done here
then eh? ;-)

just edit /usr/share/evolution/ui/*.xml

>         * KMail, Knode, and pretty much every other KDE app on the
>           planet.

I don't have KDE installed, but if this feature is anything like the gtk
feature of typing a new keybinding with the menu in fiocus, then it's
just broken and not a REAL solution.

>         * Sylpheed

yea, and like very other gtk app, as soon as you close sylpheed the
settings are lost. Yea, that's just great.

>         * Eudora
>         * ZMail

Never used either of these.

> Granted, the e-mail clients from a certain Redmond monopolist do not
> allow one to remap keybindings, but I see that as more of a detriment
> than a feature.  And even M$ lets you remap keybindings in their other
> Office apps (word, excel, etc...).

Yea, and they've spent a lot more money on UI testing than any of the
clients listed above... gee, could that maybe be *why* it doesn't have
configurable keybindings?

> > Not to mention this is complicated to do (if
> > you want to avoid conflicting keybindings that is, if you want to let
> > the user screw himself, well then that'd be easy)
>
> Complicated?  It's been done plenty of times in other apps.  Simply
> don't allow the user to create a keybinding that trounces on another
> keybinding.  That's not so complicated.

then you won't mind implementing it, I presume?

one look at bonobo-ui and you will see what I mean when I say
"complicated to do".

Jeff

-- 
Jeffrey Stedfast
Evolution Hacker - Ximian, Inc.
fejj ximian com  - www.ximian.com