Re: [HIG] Policy questions



I guess I send in my votes. :-)

On Mon, Oct 22, 2001 at 01:19:15PM -0700, Adam Elman wrote:
> Policy questions:
> 
> 1. Menu item names: "Quit <appname>", "Close <appname>", or just 
> "Quit" / "Close"?

Just "Quit" / "Close". Preferably no "Quit" as suggested in Matthew's document.

> 2. "Select None", "Deselect All", or nothing?

What do these do if not all is selected?
"Select None" seems like it could either do nothing
 ("Select what?" "Nothing." "Ok, nothing to do then.")
"Deselect All" implies that all is selected.
 ("Deselect All" "All is not selected. Doing nothing.")

Seems like "Undo <action>" as "Undo Select All" (caps?)
is the least ambiguous. It should return the app to the state
(including selected data boundaries) that it was before the "Select All"
command was issued. So . . . nothing.

> 3. "Edit->Preferences" ok as an alternative to "Options" menu?

This seems preferable, modulo the item name. I don't know what 
setting/prefs/options that might deserve an entire menubar item wouldn't
be better placed under "View".

GNU emacs 20 places a similar item under the Help menu as "Customize".
GNU emacs 21 has a menu called Options. (*sigh*)

> 4. Letter or Fkey shortcut keys?

Letter. (Modulo F1 and F10 as stated elsewhere) (See note below.)

> 5. Mnemonics for "OK" and "Cancel" in a dialog box, or just enter and 
> escape?

No letter key access for OK and Cancel.

I cannot think of when Escape might be needed within a dialog.
(Maybe to dismiss a tooltip?)

I don't know what is a reasonable condition for Enter. The options I see are:

In a single-line text widget:
  1)
    Enter advances focus.
    Tab cycles completions when available,
      otherwise advances focus.

  2)
    Enter activates OK if and only if the only focusable widgets are 
                         the entry and the dialog action area buttons,
      otherwise advances focus.
    Tab cycles completions when available,
      otherwise advances focus.

(I favor number two.)

In either case:
  In a multi-line text widget:
    Enter inserts.
    Tab inserts.

  All other widgets:
    Enter activates OK.
    Tab advances focus.

  For all widgets:
    Ctrl+Enter activates OK.
    Ctrl+Tab advances focus.
    Escape activates Cancel.
    Ctrl+Escape activates Cancel.
    Shift+<focus mover> reverses direction.

> 6. Drag-drop with right mouse button: show a menu?

No. I've accidently started a drag in Nautilus a few times (very few, since I
hardly use it) and that's the most annoying thing. (I expect the menu when the
mouse button goes down, so I start moving for items and end up dragging.)

> 7. Include a shortcut key for Quit? (Kathy recommends against).

As does mpt, I recommend against Quit/Exit/Close All.
Insofar as we may have them, how should they behave?
Quit/Exit I think I understand, but which should Close All do:
  present no document,
  present a blank untitled document,
  or quit/exit?
To which does Close All apply: the window and its auxiliaries, or the app?

> 8. General keyboard shortcut issues: see notes in keynav section.

Concur with Kathy on Tab moving to group leader and not selected group member.
Not sure about left/right/up/down arrow keys; ok with them as long as groups
are distinct.

Ok on Ctrl+D for Add Bookmark.

Ctrl+R/Ctrl+H/F5, and letters vs. function keys generally.

  I've placed on my site a table of function and control keys as used in
OS/2, Motif, Win3.1, and MacOS. It is from a the book cited at the top of the
page.

  http://www.phys.lsu.edu/~merchan/key-ref-table.html

Cheers,
Greg Merchan



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