[g-a-devel]Re: More on Keyboard moves in Panel

["Padraig O'Briain" <Padraig Obriain sun com>]

I think that the original specification was, essentially, option 1 outlinbed by 
Calum below.

If we go for that option we have the virtue of consistency. It may take a few 
more keystrokes to move something but that is probably a low frequency 
operation. In addition, the user will not be confused by moving things by 
accident.

Padraig

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> To: Glynn Foster <glynn foster sun com>
> CC: "Padraig O'Briain" <Padraig Obriain sun com>, "bill.haneman" 
<bill haneman ireland sun com>, mark mcloughlin sun com, 
calum benson dub-mail1 Ireland Sun COM, gnome-accessibility-devel gnome org
> Subject: Re: More on Keyboard moves in Panel
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> 
> Glynn Foster wrote:
> 
> > > Hmm, that doesn't sound like what we had in mind at all, let me re-read
> > > the spec and see what I really meant to write!
> > 
> > I thought we were using the arrow keys for this?
> 
> We are, but Tab was supposed to work too.  I see what's happened
> though.... the use of Tab to move something from one panel to another
> is, according to the spec, only supposed to work in Move mode.  
> 
> However, Padraig and I agreed to deviate from the spec a bit on Friday,
> so that you didn't have to be in Move mode to move objects around within
> a panel.  That is, you can now push/flip/free move panel objects around
> just by giving them focus and using modifier+arrowkeys, whereas in the
> spec you had to give them focus, select Move mode from context menu
> (shift+f10), move them with modifier+arrowkeys, then hit Enter/Space to
> exit Move mode again.
> 
> The move-between-panels functionality sounds like something we might
> need to keep within Move mode, though, because in normal use Tab should
> just move the focus along the panel, as you would expect.  It would be a
> bit odd if that was the *only* thing you could do from the keyboard
> within Move mode, though... so I guess the options are:
> 
> 1) put all the keyboard push/flip/free movement back into Move mode as
> well, forcing the user to always go into Move mode... could we easily
> add a keyboard shortcut for the Move menu item (Ctrl+M or something)
> that would appear on all panel objects' menus, or would that mean
> modifying all the applets etc. by hand?  The shortcut would make things
> slightly more usable, but it would mean applets couldn't use Ctrl+M for
> their own purposes.
> 
> 2) always allow keyboard push/flip/free movement whether you're in Move
> mode or not, but only allow between-panel keyboard movement while you're
> actually in Move mode
> 
> 3) keep it the way Padraig currently has it, but pick a key other than
> Tab to move stuff between panels when you're not in Move mode
> 
> Anyone have any preferences or other alternatives?  (1) would be the
> most consistent solution, as it keeps all the move functionality in the
> one place, but as Padraig said to me earlier it's a bit of an effort
> when all you want to do is move one of your icons half an inch to the
> left.  So I'm tempted to favour (2), even though it obscures the
> between-panel functionality-- people would probably only find it if they
> read the docs. (3) would mean picking an arbitrary key that isn't
> normally used for navigation (we're currently using up all the others),
> which doesn't sound too clever, and it would also mean that applets
> couldn't use that key for their own internal navigation.
> 
> Cheeri,
> Calum.
> 
> -- 
> CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
> mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
> http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771
> 
> Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems