Re: [Usability] Application-type keyboard shortcuts

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Thu, 2004-09-09 at 07:09, Alan Horkan wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Sep 2004, Shaun McCance wrote:
> 
> > Date: 08 Sep 2004 18:38:35 -0500
> > From: Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>
> > To: Tommi Komulainen <tommi komulainen iki fi>
> > Cc: Usability <usability gnome org>
> > Subject: Re: [Usability] Application-type keyboard shortcuts
> >
> > On Wed, 2004-09-08 at 13:13, Tommi Komulainen wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2004-09-08 at 08:19 -0400, Bryan Clark wrote:
> > > > On Wed, 2004-09-08 at 11:15 +0300, Aschwin van der Woude wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > It would be nice if such applications agree on a set of keyboard-
> > > > > shortcuts. Would the HIG perhaps be a place to define keyboard-shortcuts
> > > > > for different types of applications?
> > > >
> > > > It actually does this already [1]. In the view section are shortcut keys
> > > > that applications should be using for zooming and others.
> > > >
> > > > If an application isn't following these guidelines it's probably a bug
> > > > in either the HIG being out of date or the application.
> > >
> > > I for one would really like it if mail/news/rss readers could all agree
> > > on a single set of shortcuts...  I can never remember which of 'n',
> > > 'Ctrl+N', '.', ']' jumps to next unread message and such :)
> 
> Which software are you talking about specifically?
> 
> I strongly suspect your list includes non-GUI mail applications which I
> think it is fair to say goes beyond the scope of Gnome.
> 
> (What mail clients could you be talking about in the context of Gnome?
> Evolution, Balsa, Sylpheed, Mozilla Mail, Thunderbird?)

Evolution (Ctrl+K) and Pan (M).  Both are GUI applications.  Both are
designed for Gnome.  (Pan has some HIG issues (as does Evolution, I dare
say), but it is designed for use in Gnome.)  I use them both regularly,
and I constantly hit the wrong shortcut for Mark as read.  Fortunately,
the wrong shortcut is non-destructive in both applications, but it's
still rather annoying.

Trying to standardize all the shortcuts any application might use is
just an exercise in futility.  But I think there are more common things
that can be standardized than the HIG actually does.

--
Shaun