Re: [Evolution] Any suggested workarounds for yet one more interface quirk?

[Evolution List <carlos gonzalez shaw ca>]

Hi Patrick, 

> > I suppose using
> > Space and Backspace might be some kind of email keyboard standard but
> > it's news to me.  
>
> Not so much an email standard as a Unix convention, used all over the
> place (try the "less" command for example). Comes from when many
> keyboards didn't have PageUp, PageDown and so on. Some of them didn't
> even have arrows! 

I suppose user intuitiveness to some degree is a relative thing since it
heavily depends on one's familiarity with either Unix, Linux, Mac,
Windows etc. and to whether the more intuitive keys were even available
way back when.  Although I have been using Linux for going on two or
three years now (mostly Gentoo) I do come from the Windows world. 

I still think though that using the Space and Backspace key to go
forward or backward in a document is completely unintuitive even apart
from our respective backgrounds.  

I mean Space is generally considered a space between letters type of
thing.  It is a space.  Not a "go forward in a document" type of key.  I
don't think most people coming out of the Windows world would have a
clue about using space to go forward in a document.  I sure didn't.
Since Evo purports to replace Outlook and since it is oriented around
making such a transition as easy as possible I am surprised to see it
using Space and Backspace in a way that would mainly be intuitive only
to those coming entirely from the Unix/Linux world.  And even then only
because when they first started using Unix/Linux the PgUp and PgDn keys
weren't even around.  

Backspace is just that. It is going backward as in to the previous
letter in a word.  It is going backward to the previous *space* which
may be occupied by a letter.  Not to the previous page in a document.
Such use would better be attached to a Backpage key (if there was
one).  

Again I don't think most Windows users would have a clue about using
Backspace to go backward in a page.  

The PgUp key is much more intuitive. I mean it says "Page Up".  That is,
a user would be inclined to use that key most intuitively to go up one
Page in a document.  It doesn't get more intuitive than that :). 

As such, at least in terms of using Space and Backspace to go forward
and backward in an email message, I would have to say that Evolution is
less than intuitive in this particular aspect. 

Does that make sense? 

If Evolution is being designed for Unix/Linux users who grew up with the
use of such keys.  No problem.  But if it is being designed from the
ground up to be the most intuitive and best email program around and a
replacement for Outlook then don't you agree that something like Shift
+PgUp and Shift+PgDn (or even just PgUp and PgDn) is more intuitive than
Space and Backspace in order to go forward or backwards one page in an
email message? 

Carlos