Re: [Usability] "Input Methods" and "Insert Unicode Control Character" in context menus

[Todd Chambery <todd chambery gmail com>]

It's not a case where having the menus means a loss of productivity on
my part, but rather a recognition that for the vast majority of the
English-speaking world (as evidenced by the lack of these menus on an
American English MS Windows installation) these menus will never be
used, and may rightly be called "clutter".

There are plenty of options on many menus that get little use, but the
context menu is invoked frequently, so options included here should
only be those immediately relevant to the situation or user.

I'm not suggesting they be removed from the system, or even turned off
by default.  Just that there be a way to turn them off for those who
will never use them.

Cheers,

Todd

On 8/3/05, Jan Morén <jan moren lucs lu se> wrote:
> ons 2005-08-03 klockan 19:22 -0400 skrev Rodney Dawes:
> > They are for text input using the keyboard. The fact that they are there
> 
> [...]
> 
> > I would probably suggest just not using it, if you do not want to use it
> > for now. Perhaps in the future, this could be an option in the Keyboard
> > or Locale settings, though.
> 
> If you don't have a separate input method handler like UIM, you will
> want to have this in the context menu to set it on a per-input area
> basis. You may want to write email in English sometimes, and in Thai (or
> whatever) other times. You have perhaps one open spreadsheet in one
> language and a different one in another. I switch between the different
> Japanese input methods and western language all the time.
> 
> Having to switch input method globally would be really, really
> inconvenient.
> 
> 
> 
> > On Wed, 2005-08-03 at 15:59 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> > > On Wed, 3 Aug 2005, Todd Chambery wrote:
> > >
> > > > Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2005 08:43:25 -0400
> > > > From: Todd Chambery <todd chambery gmail com>
> > > > To: usability gnome org
> > > > Subject: [Usability] "Input Methods" and "Insert Unicode Control
> > > >     Character" in context menus
> > > >
> > > > Hi all,
> > > >
> > > > I've been using Gnome a while, and the "Input Methods"/"Insert Unicode
> > > > Control Character" options that show up in every text entry context
> > > > menu has always puzzled me.  I've never had a need to use them (they
> > > > are "foreign" to a MS Windows user) and feel that they unnecessarily
> > > > clutter the context menu.
> > >
> > > > Is there a way to turn off these context menu options?
> > >
> > > Not that I know of, but it may be possible.
> > >
> > > I believe they are for complex text input and developers insisted on
> > > having them in an easy to find place, and techincal considerations trumped
> > > usability cocerns.  I was under the impression that improvements to Pango
> > > and the general text handling in Gnome might eventually allow these menu
> > > items to be removed entirely.  Hopefully someone more expert can shed some
> > > light on these and explain it better.
> > >
> > > Sincerely
> > >
> > > Alan Horkan
> > > http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Usability mailing list
> > > Usability gnome org
> > > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
> > >
> >
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> --
> Tel. (Japan) 090-3622 8920            Dr. Jan Morén (mr)
> Sweden: +46-31 360 7723               Dept. of Cognitive Science
> http://lucs.lu.se/people/jan.moren    Lund, Sweden
> 
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