Re: GTKTreeView navigation improvement

[Andrey M <admartch gmail com>]

Hi Kris,

Thanks for your quick reply.

> Are you aware that there is a key binding bound to "backspace" that is
> in charge of selecting the parent node?
I was unaware about "backspace" and none of the following searches
yielded any usable results:
(0 hits) http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=gtk+keyboard+shortcuts
(1 hit) http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=gtk+treeview+shortcut
(0 hits) http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=gtk+treeview+backspace

To me, the intuitive function of backspace is to delete and erase, as
in if the treeview is used like a property editor.

> I don't fully see how your proposed behavior greatly enhances the
> usability.  Other than that you can easily collapse the entire tree by
> keeping shift+left pressed.  (But, we have another key binding just
> for that).  In general I think that overloading key bindings with
> multiple actions is bad; when the key bindings were being "designed"
> by the usability team, I recall that avoiding overloading was
> important.

Ideally, I would like unmodified left/right keys (like in windows) for
the navigation of a treeview.
I believe that would be the most intuitive for all users, especially
ones attempting the switch from windows to linux.
However, I do understand that the gtk treeview control is much more
complex than its windows counterpart and that left and right are used
for cell navigation.
I tried searching for any documentation on keyboard accelerators in
gtk, but I could not find anything on expand/collapse nodes in a
treeview.
Ultimately, I discovered <shift>+<left/right> only from trial and error.
Extending the functionality of <shift>+<left> will only improve the
control and the convenience with which a user can navigate through it.

I would really appreciate any and all input from the gtk community.

Best Regards,
-Andrey