Re: keyboard/focus annoyance after sorting in list view

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Fri, 2009-03-06 at 11:23 +0100, John Keller wrote:
> Alexander Larsson wrote:

> > Really? Is this a global switch? How is it decided which elements are
> > allowed to be focused?
> 
> Yes, it's global. Not sure how long it exists (OS X only? And since 
> which version), but I ran into it recently.
> 
> It basically turns off keyboard nav (tab/arrow keys) between 
> non-modifiable fields. So e.g. buttons in dialog boxes (Enter and Escape 
> still confirm and cancel, and there are mneumonic-but-not-displayed 
> shortcuts like Command-D for "Don't save changes" in a confirmation 
> dialog or Command-D for "Desktop" in save dialog boxes). I'd have to 
> check, but I believe it's still possible to to toggle with the keyboard 
> between the file list and the spotlight search field on each Finder window.

Interesting. Something like this in gtk+ would perhaps be a better match
for what you want?

> Currently, Ctrl-Tab seems to be used to jump to/navigate between the 
> toolbar buttons in browser view (in list or icon view); and to/between 
> the sort fields and the little path button in the corner of the folder 
> view (in list view), or to/between the little path button and the main 
> pane's contents (in icon view).
> 
> Hmm, internal consistency, anyone? ;-)

The hig says:

Ctrl+Tab, Shift+Ctrl+Tab:
Moves keyboard focus out of enclosing widget to next/previous control,
in those situations where Tab alone has another function (e.g.
GtkTextView)

According to the Gtk+ source it moves by default as if Ctrl is not set,
but various widgets override this (like the toolbar).

> Not sure, is all that related to GTK or expected behavior? If not, maybe 
> Ctrl-Tab could always jump to/switch between the main file list and the 
> sidebar. I know that I've often seen that used in similar situations in 
> GNOME (Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PgUp/PgDown to switch between tabs in a dialog 
> box) or in Windows (often used to switch between tabs in an MDI, whereas 
> GNOME usually Ctrl+PgUp/PgDown, e.g. Nautilus itself).

In another thread I proposed using a function key, lets keep the
discussion there.