Re: [Usability] Ctl+W

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

Telsa Gwynne wrote:

> Seriously? I've been skipping through this thread secure in the
> knowledge that I thought I saw "Don't use these as keybindings:
> they may not been used in this scheme, but they are expected by
> emacs-key-binding users and should not be used for other things"
> (with a list of bindings I use a lot, although I don't use emacs).

There is indeed a section in the draft UI Guidelines to that effect,
which lists all the current emacs keybindings in common use in GNOME and
suggests you don't use them for anything else while a text field has
focus.  I included that because I was still hearing conflicting stories
from the gtk team at that point about whether they would be switched off
by default or not... still not sure I've heard the definitive answer!

> My ideal scenario would be something along the lines of a
> dialogue for:
> 
>         Choose keybindings:
> 
>         Emacs style
>         Windows style
>         MacOS style
>         CDE style

This might work for text-editing/navigation keybindings, but probably
not much else.  When app developers add a shortcut key to their new app
for a particular function, they can't be expected to have to pick one
dynamically at runtime so as not to collide with whatever scheme the
user currently employs.  If nothing else, think of the documentation
nightmare :)

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems