Re: combo rant

[Olivier Sessink <lists olivier pk wau nl>]

Freddie Unpenstein wrote:
> > It is the trade-off of the policy that "the selected item is under 
> > the pointer in the just shown popup, period." I think it is 
> > generally good, but this is an example of where it shows its 
> > drawbacks. However, for the sake of UI consistency, I believe it 
> > should _not_ be changed. I.e. it be "under the pointer, period", 
> > not "under the pointer, but only if..."
>
>
> So, why can't we just move the mouse?

because that would cause 90% of the users and developers to immediately
switch away from gtk. Users expect the pointer to be connected to their
mouse, they expect it to be almost a mechanical link. If a program moves
the pointer, users start to move their mouse wildly to find out where
the pointer did go, and they may have to start all over again locating
the correct entry in the combo.

[..]
> These kinds of functionality SHOULD be optional.

such that other people are not comfortable on your computer because it
works different from their own?

It's not such an easy task to improve the combo behavior, many of the
proposals in this thread would make general usability worse compared to
the minor improvement of the proposal.

regards,
        Olivier