Re: [HIG] conforming to the GDP word list

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 09Oct2001 11:14AM (+0100), Calum Benson wrote:
> Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> 
> > I agree that mnemonic is a poor term; these types of keyboard 
> > shortcuts are not memory aids.
> 
> Well, that kind of depends how you look at it... it would be fairly
> pointless to list the  mnemonics for standard menu items in the style
> guide if nobody was ever expected to remember them anyway.  For example,
> a lot of people know very well without looking that in most Windoze
> programs, they can do Alt+F-A to do a "Save As...", for which there is
> (usually) no other keyboard shortcut.  And vision-impaired users end up
> learning the mnemonic access sequence for pretty much every feature they
> use in an app.
> 

You could consider the underlined character to be a mnemonic for the
keyboard shortcut, but the keyboard shortcut itself is not a mnemonic
for anything. In other words, the underlined "F" on the file menu
label could sort of be considered a mnemonic; you could argue that it
it helps you remember the keyboard shortcut "Alt+F", although I'd tend
to say it _shows_ you the keyboard shortcut rather than reminding you,
and so I think even this usage is wrong. In general, the term "mnemonic"

But the keyboard shortcut "Alt+F" is by no stretch of the imagination
a mnemonic. It's not a reminder of something else, it's something you
actually use directly.


The canonical examples of mnemonics would be things like:

* The pretend name "ROY G. BIV" as a way of remembering the colors of
the rainbow

* The phrase "Every Good Boy Does Fine" as a way of remembering the
notes on the lines of the staff when using a treble cleff

* Using 1-800-BIG-EVIL as an easier way to remember the phone number
1-800-244-3845


Here is a web page with more examples of mnemonic devices
http://www.usu.edu/~acaserv/center/pages/mnemonic.html

Here is a technical definition:
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci212582,00.html


Greg's suggested term, "access key", is a much better term for an
underlined character that corresponds systematically to a key
sequence. I've seen other usability folks call these "keyboard
equivalents" (as opposed to "keyboard shortcuts" which are not
necessarily visible at all times and need not correspond to a specific
on-screen widget; an example would be Control+S for `Save'.)

(Of course, the term used to refer to keyboard shortcuts in general in
Gtk+ is "accel", which shows the folly of trying to use the gtk
internals terms in any sort of interface guidelines.)

 - Maciej