Re: Split/dual pane view again (but this time with code)

[Holger Berndt <berndth gmx de>]

Hi Calum,

On Mi, 25.02.2009 13:41, Calum Benson wrote:

>>  - How far should the keyboard shortcuts from good old Norton Commander
>>    (which are nowadays quasi-standards amongst split-view filebrowsers,
>>    mainly F5: copy selection to other side, F6: move selection to other
>>    side, TAB: make other pane active) be supported?
>
>Personally, I wouldn't be in favour of using any of those.  The HIG says
>about choosing application shortcut keys (emphasis mine):
>
>        Do not use Ctrl+number *or numbered function keys* as shortcut
>        keys, unless the number has some obvious relevance to the
>        action. For example, Ctrl+2 and Ctrl+3 may be acceptable
>        shortcut keys for View ? 2D View and View ? 3D View in a 3D
>        modelling application.

So Nautilus is actually violating this already, with Ctrl+{1,2,3} for
selecting views. Anyways, for file operations, I'd be very happy to not
have shortcut keys at all. As long as menu entries exist, users can
assign their own keys.

>And for moving focus between panes, GNOME/gtk already has a standard
>shortcut (F6: next pane, Shift-F6: previous pane).  So inventing a new
>one, not to mention over-riding the standard usage of Tab, wouldn't be
>recommended.

Well, Tab is the standard key for walking through the focus chain. The
question is just what the focus chain should contain. The draft that I
coded up so far sets a focus chain containing only the left and right
panes in split view mode. That's what people who used a split-view
filebrowser before most likely expect.

Holger