[Usability] Re: [Desktop_architects] Printing dialog and GNOME

[Tuomo Valkonen <tuomov iki fi>]

On 2005-12-14, Owen Williams <ywwg usa net> wrote:
> nautilus and the file chooser don't have <tab> completion but they do
> have <enter> completion.  Start in a window with any file selected, and
> start typing.  As soon as the folder you want is highlighted, hit enter
> and the next folder opens up.  Repeat until you get the file you want.
> It is _very_ fast and natural.

Selecting the next completion or the one after that and so on is not
fast and it is not natural. Especially when there are multiple
completions with a long identical part, or the remaining character to
select the next alternative is hard to produce, cycling is more convenient
than typing the remaining characters to select a particular completion.
In Gnome both are inconvenient. Having to move the hand to the cursor key
block is almost as bad as having to move it to the mouse. ^N and ^P 
should work _everywhere_ where cursor keys work. They're far more
convenient to access. Alternatively in this case, Tab should cycle.

Of course, Gnome doesn't care to cater for people who are accustomed to
these "unix-standard" bindings are any other convenient set of bindings. 
The Gnome projects in wants everyone to use absolutely useless Windows-style
bindings where ^P is wasted for something that is used once a week instead
of many times a minute: print.

-- 
Tuomo