Re: Stop alt-spacebar window menu

[Bill Farmer <williamjfarmer tiscali co uk>]

Looks like it's a show stopper, which is a shame because I've already 
got a nice layout, and got the keyboard interaction going. The problem 
is that the emulation has to bear some resemblance  to the real 
instrument, and be playable, so even if I don't use the alt key, users 
are likely to hit it by accident when playing. This had already happened 
to users of the windows version until I figured out how to stop it.

Brian J. Tarricone wrote:
> On 05/28/2009 11:51 AM, Bill Farmer wrote:
>
> > The reason for wanting to capture the alt-spacebar combination is
> > because the keyboard is being played as a musical instrument using the
> > function keys on one side, and the control, alt, and spacebar on the
> > other side. So, every time the user presses alt-spacebar, the app main
> > window loses the keyboard focus, he has to put the keyboard down, and
> > use the mouse to dismiss the menu, as the escape key doesn't return the
> > focus to the app main window. See http://melodeon.googlecode.com.
>
> Well, you have a couple choices:
>
> 1.  Come up with a better virtual keyboard layout that isn't likely to 
> conflict with existing shortcuts.  (Or make the things likely to 
> conflict configurable in your app.)
>
> 2.  Suggest that users disable conflicting key bindings or, if that's 
> not possible, use a different WM that doesn't have a conflicting key 
> binding (or is configurable).
>
> Basically #1 is your only viable option.  #2 is going to make the 
> majority of your potential users either say "huh, what's a window 
> manager?  how do I change that?" and be completely confused, or say 
> "no thanks, I can live without your app."
>
> > I've looked at the keybindings, but can't work out how to remove this
> > one. It's possible that it's in Gnome, I haven't got that far. Also I
> > only want to change it for this application.
>
> You can't.  The WM doesn't care what app is focused.  It'll eat the 
> key regardless.
>
> And besides, even if you do find a solution for GNOME, what about 
> people who run KDE?  Xfce?  LXDE?  *box?  Ratpoison?  ......
>
>     -brian
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