Re: [Usability] newbie suggestions ...

[Gregory Merchan <merchan phys lsu edu>]

On Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 11:23:09PM +0000, Alan Horkan wrote:
> Christian Rose wrote:
> 
> >Alan wrote:
> >
> >>I'd like to add the keybindings
> >>Ctrl+A  Select All
> >>
> >I guess the reason that Ctrl+A is not included is that it usually
> >conflicts with the "Go to the beginning of the line" Emacs shortcut, and
> >GTK+ fields also use Emacs shortcuts. I don't know if Emacs shortcuts
> >will be enabled by default in GNOME2 though, 
> >
> aagh! emacs keybindings by default how scary is that.  useful maybe but 
> please not on by default.  i suppose i will have to just give up and  
> C-x, C-c
> (as far as usability goes it was not obvious C == Ctrl or even Control, 
> but people were willing to help me learn vim so thats what i learnt)

The plan is for emacs keybinding which do not conflict with others to be
available. E.g., Control+K (select to end of line and delete) is one of these.
I don't think it behaves the same way as emacs does though; I've not seen
it steal PRIMARY (i.e., select), which is good.

> >or if there is a clever way
> >of allowing both these uses of the shortcut without conflict.
> >
> >>http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/draft_hig/keyboard.html#shortcuts
> >>I use gnome on (Solaris?BSD?)Sparc (sometimes) and the command key is
> >>Alt not Ctrl.
> >>Same goes for BeOS, and then there is the Mac ... even though they dont
> >>run Gnome its good to be portable.
> >>
> >
> >I suspect the big reason why Alt is a bad choice for command keys is
> >that it usually collides with "underlined character" shortcuts in the
> >interface, and there are (and should be) many of those. Also, Ctrl as
> >command key has the benefit of being compatible with the largest
> >desktop, Windows.
> >
> That reason for not using Alt is already mentioned on the page i linked 
> to .  

See the further explanation in one of my other replies.


Cheers,
Greg Merchan