Re: Shortcuts (was: Accelerator and terminology guides?)

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Christian Rose">

> IMHO, standardizing shortcuts is not so much about "which one is easier to
> remember" but more about "what are users used to from other environments
> and would expect to work exactly the same here".  There are as many good
> suggestions for "what is more logical" as there are keys on the keyboard,
> but I think it does not make sense from an UI perspective to be different
> on purpose -- consistency is more important, I'd say.

"To be different on purpose" -> No. Different because there are important
pre-existing standards and keybindings.

"Consistency is more important" -> Absolutely. Within the GNOME environment.

> So moving around shortcuts is not something I think we should do. I
> think we should re-use standards from other environments where possible.

This does not make sense within the Unix environment. GNOME is a Unix
desktop environment.

> The problem is that users experienced with Windows expect F1 to bring them
> the help and so on.

And so they should expect that to work in... Windows. There is absolutely no
reason for GNOME to blindly adopt the keybindings of a completely different
environment when it makes little sense within GNOME's primary working
environment: Unix and X.

[ As Liam pointed out, the Alt key is a very viable solution to all of these
problems. If you need an existing environment as an example, there's Mac OS
with the Option key. ]

- Jeff

-- 
    "Man, is there some worldwide consipiracy to supply me with doctored    
             dictionaries or something?" - Adrian van den Dries