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

[John Keller <gnome johnkeller com>]

Alexander Larsson wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-03-06 at 10:49 +0100, Holger Berndt wrote:
> > On Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:33:13 +0100 Alexander Larsson wrote:
> >
> > > I'd rather pick another key shortcut that is not used currently. As I
> > > commented in another thread, such a shortcut is useful even in the
> > > no-split-view case where it could set focus on the view, independent
> > > on where focus was before. Not sure what the best shortcut would be
> > > though.
> > >
> > > Ctrl-Tab?
> > I'd be very happy with this one. 
> >
> > > 10.2.4.2. Standard Widget Navigation Shortcut Keys in
> > > http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/input-keyboard.html.en 
> > > lists some interesting keys, like:
> > >
> > > F6, Shift+F6 - Give focus to next/previous pane in a GtkPaned window
> > > F8 - Give focus to splitter bar in paned window
> > Giving focus to the other pane in a GtkPane is not enough, because each
> > pane consists of a VBox layout containing the location bar and the
> > notebook, so I really want to focus the directory view, and not the
> > location bar, so one would have to fiddle around with the focus chain
> > again.
>
> I don't mean to use these, just be "similar" to them.
>
> > > Maybe we could use F4 or something for switching between views /
> > > focusing the view.
> > I'd like Ctrl-Tab much better. For my personal gut feeling it's much
> > more intuitive than e.g. F4 (which I connect to closing things).
>
> Ctrl-Tab is kinda iffy to hit though, compared to e.g. F4.

Except that F4 is in the middle of several other keys with no other 
particular mnemonic meaning (didn't say standard use, I mean no 
particular relation to the action). And Ctrl-Tab benefits from muscle 
memory ("Tab alone", "Ctrl+another key" ... "oh, I can use Ctrl+Tab, 
too"). Plus it is, after all, used in similar conditions as I mentioned 
in that other thread.

> > Tab is already closely connected to focusing things, be it Alt-Tab for
> > the WM, or Tab alone for the focus chain. I can very well see Ctrl-Tab
> > become "focus the most important thing of the current window, or
> > iterate between equally important things if you're already there".
>
> Well, Ctrl-Tab already has a different meaning in Gtk+. Not that this
> can't change or anything, but its a point against it.

I'm not sure that I read the HIG as strictly as you seem to for this 
key. "[I]n those situations where Tab alone has another function". 
Pressing Tab gets me through a focus chain (whose length depends on the 
elements in the window). Seems logical that Ctrl+Tab jumps to a key spot 
in the chain, or cycles through it, as Holder mentions here and I did in 
the other thread.

Plus, as I wrote in the other thread, Ctrl+Tab is already used in 
Nautilus - and inconsistently, as well (inconsistent within Nautilus, 
and by a strict reading of that same quoted HIG phrase, inconsistent 
with the HIG too).

- John