Re: [Usability] the emacs keyboard shortcut issue

[Sunnan <sunnan handgranat org>]

Hi,

Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com> writes:

> On Sun, 2004-10-10 at 12:45 +0200, Sunnan wrote:
>> They're so often overridden! While only a few apps (like Sound-Juicer)
>> dare mess with basics like C-a and C-d (since the HIG says not to), it
>> seems very common to override C-f, C-b, C-p and C-n. I don't know how
>> many times I've popped up a "Find" or "Print" dialog by mistake.
>
> Control+letter shortcuts are a scarce commodity, they shouldn't be used
> for something arrow keys already do. Even many Emacs users (such as
> myself) don't use those over the arrow keys.

I know, but for those who do use them, it's a pain if they don't work,
since they're used virtually all the time.

> This is also an area where we can get easy familiarity to Windows users.

...at the expense of familiarity to Mac users, Unix users and Emacs
users.

>> I've tried out Mac OS X (which overall is kinda crackrock IMVHO) a
>> couple of times, and this is one thing they do right; all application
>> shortcuts use the command key for shortcuts, while ctrl is reserved
>> for emacs stuff in text input fields. (They even implement C-t,
>> transpose characters.)
>
> We can't rely on such a key existing since we don't sell hardware,
> though.

I was just pointing out that their solution is very consistent,
whereas Gnome surprises me from application to application.

Here are a couple of possible solutions:

1) Have one of the three needed (emacs, regular, and access) prefix
   keys be a key combination. (Ctrl-Alt, Shift-Alt, or Shift-Ctrl.)

2) Have the three needed prefix keys be centrally configurable. (This
   solution can combine with 1, above. This solution also works well
   for the users that do have a command, windows or separate meta
   key.)

OR:

3) As I remember, getting the emacs keyboard shortcuts to work was
   kinda a hassle, since they were off by default. How about, for
   *those who've chosen to use emacs keyboard shortcuts*, having them
   override the other Ctrl-key shortcuts? If I need to print, I can
   choose it from the menu (via mouse or Alt).

Or maybe there's another good solution.

-- 
One love,
Sunnan