[Usability] Ctl+W

[Pete Setchell <pete setchell goodtechnology com>]

On Wed, 2001-12-12 at 01:07, Christian Rose wrote:
> > GTK 2 will have Ctrl+A mean select all by default.
> 
> Thanks a lot, Havoc.
> 
> Then the Ctrl+A (Select All) shortcut should probably also be a part of
> the HIG recommended shortcuts?
> 
> 
> Christian

Has the use of Ctl+W for "Close the current document" been discussed?

Ctl+W is already used for the extremely useful "Delete Word" shortcut in
almost every legacy unix application - bash, most other shells, vi etc.

It doesn't seem to be one of the emacs shortcuts listed in the HIG, but
does seem to work in Gnome 1.4 text inputs by default.

Either way - this makes for a nasty "Aaaagh! Where did my application"
error at the moment. I use Ctl+W to clear the location bar in galeon -
if the wrong part of the app has focus then it closes the window
instead.

Since bash is probably going to be a heavily used part of linux for
quite a while, wouldn't it make sense to keep Ctl+W in it's legacy role
and choose another shortcut for close document?

The current error forces unix users to relearn behaviour and experience
harmful errors. The people who gain from the current situation are
ex-windows users who already use that shortcut - note that this is
probably quite a small subset of "all windows users".

I suspect people who regularly learn and use accelerators would be able
to easily switch to a new system wide default, and might even gain from
system-wide adoption of the "delete word" shortcut.

-- 
Pete Setchell
+++++
Good Technology, London