Re: scroll bar and drop down list usability

[Ken Fox <kfox vulpes com>]

Alan Shutko wrote:
> Ken Fox <kfox@vulpes.com> writes:
> > I agree that terminal emulation windows deserve special
> > treatment. However, I'd also like to think they are legacy
> > interfaces that shouldn't dictate the development of the rest of the
> > interface.
> 
> Do you have plans for capturing their power in another interface, or
> is that legacy too?

Terminals are ok the way they are (they could certainly be improved
though if shells could talk to the terminal, e.g. background jobs could
automatically become tabs in a multi-window display). What I meant is
that terminals shouldn't dictate the way non-terminal applications
behave. Why should a spreadsheet interface be influenced by a terminal?
(Plan 9 is an interesting counter-example though, but that's way
outside the bounds of what I've seen proposed by Gnome.)

> > IMHO, cut and paste are important enough to have named keys on the
> > keyboard. Why we have "Scroll Lock" and "Esc" but not "Paste" is totally
> > mysterious to me.
> 
> Good idea, but giving them their own keys would slow down using them
> (because you'd have to move away from the home row).  C-[xcv] were
> originally chosen, iirc, because they were easy to type.

I don't buy that argument. I only have a limited understanding of
efficiency estimation (such as GOMS), but I don't recall anything about
where a key is located affecting the efficiency calculation. Also,
if a user has just made a selection, she is probably holding the mouse,
not resting on home row. For a right handed person, cut/paste keys
arranged on the left would be very efficient -- they could be easily
pressed while holding the mouse. (It's a shame that we don't have left
handed keyboards; maybe a detachable function key pad would be a good
solution.) Last, the idea that a chord is easier to type than a single
key is very surprising to me. A group of keys on the left side of the
keyboard should be easily reached with the left pinky finger; no
chords, no stretching.

- Ken