Re: Default button in dialogs

[Julian Missig <julian jabber org>]

On 10 May 2001 01:20:49 +0200, Guillermo S. Romero / Familia Romero wrote:
> mrogers cs ucl ac uk (2001-05-09 at 2216.23 +0100):
> > and Escape means "Cancel". So, could the style guide please reflect 
> > this convention?
> 
> Please read http://www.delanet.com/~jkmissig/interface-guide.txt, it
> proposes Enter in smarter way than OK (mainly cos OK must be avoided
> if possible ;] ).
> 
> I think it is very nice as is, I would just add:
> 
> - buttons should have mnemonics if possible, so to Delete, or similar
> dangerous actions, would be not as direct as Enter, but not as complex
> as using always the mouse or tabing around. [IIRC this is a global
> rule everyone has in mind, so maybe not needed here explicitily]
> 
> - Esc reverts or cancels (whichever applies in the case), after all it
> is Escape ~= "no, i changed my mind, forget it". It will be the same
> than clicking a button, if the button just changes something, Esc too,
> if forgets and closes, the key too.
> 
> Conclusion: Esc is friendly (always undoes), Enter is friendly
> (activates things... but only if not dangerous) and other keys can be
> used for dangerous tasks (Delete -> D, ie). I do not care if you can
> reformat your hard disk with Enter in Windows, if I requested format,
> I will move the fingers to F (or see the Format label in the button
> when moving the cursor), if it was an error and I believed it was non
> dangerous, Enter will save me a PITA *. So all happy, IMHO.
> 
> I was going to keep the idea waiting until the first official drafts
> would be published, but now that you comment about it, better say it
> and point you to the doc at the same time.
> 
> GSR
>  
> PS: * I have not used Windows seriously in along time, but I guess it
> will be Enter to format, then Enter again to get rid off "Are you
> sure? Yes / No" ("sure of what?") and then start formating, which is
> not good. ;]
>  

I agree with you. We definitely need to have key shortcuts for dialog
buttons.

I really think we should get a dialog button proposal out ASAP so we can
make sure *all* of the dialogs work the way we want in GNOME2... I'd
rather have some sort of small specification for something so we can
start moving forward than wait for a big specification for everything
and have to work retroactively on the then-released GNOME2...

Julian
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