Re: needed feature

["Ben FrantzDale" <frantb rpi edu>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Cole Petersburg <petersburg@oneota.net>
To: <gnome-gui-list@gnome.org>
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2000 8:46 PM
Subject: needed feature


> (I'm new to this list so I don't know if these questions have been raised
> before)
>
> I don't use Linux regularly for one reason: I can't access menus with the
> alt button. It may sound trivial, but it's most of what I do with Windows.
> At home running four Netscape windows and Eudora and ftp, I can use a
> button to reach the desktop. At work I can do html, save, and alt-tab to
> the browser. (Well I probably could manage that one with Gnome.) I can hit
> alt, left, down down down down down Enter to close something. I can run
> most things from the keyboard. Gnome has alt-tab, but I want more! Even if
> I were using an xterm to run programs with my keyboard, I couldn't close
it
> or open another one without the mouse. I couldn't minimize it with keys. I
> thought the great thing about using Linux is that you don't have to point
> and click!

Some of this depends on your windowmanager. With enlightenment the default
iconify command is ctrl+alt+i and in gnome apps I believe ctrl+q closes
(though you can set it up through your WM to be alt+F4 or whatever else you
want.)

> Is this a feature I just haven't found yet? Would this require a utility?
> Does such a utility exist? Or would this be a widget thing?
> I know that Photoshop for Windows doesn't allow accessing menus with the
> alt key, so is this up to the developer of each program? The terminal and
> Gnotepad+, at least, are under the control of the Gnome developers.
>
> Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, but I think I remember that with
> Gnome, an app's window doesn't go into the next desktop section, when it
> does under fvwm. I think KDE also cuts off boxes... Without setting my
> display at 1600x1200, windows frequently go below the bottom of the page
> and are hard to resize.

This is a window manager/X issue.

> Are these things being worked on?

For the large part, yes. I agree, though, that gnome should be working
harder to be keyboard navigable like Windows (and KDE I think) is. Most
gnome apps do have an underlined letter on each menu item for alt+letter to
access the menu but you are right, a Windows level of keyboard navigability
is needed and not there yet.

--Ben