Re: [Usability] Keyboard prefs, layouts tab

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On Apr 2, 2006, at 9:09 PM, Joachim Noreiko wrote:
> ...
> The layouts selection dialog shows you the diagram of the keyboard.
> This has problems of its own: the dialog is as big as it can be, but 
> the diagram is too small to be useful.
> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=335836
> The only thing I can think of for this would be to allow dialog boxes 
> to have two minimum sizes, one for 640x480 displays, and one for 
> everyone else.

The minimum size of the window is not really the issue here -- on my 
system it's 204*169 pixels, much smaller than the default. The issue is 
that the diagrams are unreadable at *any* size. Even when I resize the 
window to about 2000*740 pixels, some of the writing is still too small 
to be shown as distinct characters (particularly on the numeric 
keypad).

> Can anyone think of a better and more elegant way to
> fix this?

None of these would solve the problem by themselves, and some of them 
are mutually exclusive, but they'd all help.
*   Let windows have a preferred size, which the window manager can
    ignore if the screen's not that big.
*   Arrange the unShifted and Shifted characters horizontally on each
    key, instead of vertically, allowing for a bigger font.
*   Make modified characters appear only when that modifier key is held
    down (à la Key Caps on classic Mac OS), so the whole of each key
    can be used to display one character at a time.
*   Use less padding for each key in the diagram.
*   Use a transparent background for the diagrams (but not the keys),
    so the layouts can go right up to the edges of their diagrams.
*   (Worst option) Use a tooltip for each key.

> > > with you press keys defined elswhere.
> >
> > Where's "elsewhere"? :-) I can't find it anywhere.
>
> Of course not! It's the amazingly named 'Group Shift/Lock behavior'
> option in the next tab. No, *nothing* in this label indicates is has 
> anything to do with layouts, unless you happen to know [t]hat some 
> kinds of layouts are called 'groups'.

To laugh, or to cry? That is the question.

> Once again, AFAIK, this text is determined by X, not GNOME. So we're 
> stuck with it.

How so? Does Xorg really have the text "R-Alt switches group while 
pressed.", etc, in it somewhere?

> ...
> Update on this: Vuntz tells me that he plans to work on stuff in 
> panels that would allow a button in this pref tool 'Add keyboard 
> indicator to the panel'.

Excellent. Probably the only question remaining would be "'panel'? 
what's the panel?"

> This would be a good stopgap until the new notification architecture 
> comes in & the applet moves to the notification area.

Further evidence that there is no such thing as the notification area. 
It's too small to show notifications, so it's used mostly for other 
things.

> > This bug is also what makes the list nearly impossible to label. If 
> > you could guarantee that having more than one label
> > selected resulted in the keyboard layout menu appearing on the panel,
> > then the list could be labelled "Show these layouts in the keyboard 
> > menu:". If you could guarantee that the keyboard combo for cycling 
> > was the same, the list could be labelled "Ctrl+Space cycles between 
> > these keyboard layouts:", though the former would be better following 
> > the HIG's advice on modes.
>
> Would 'Use these layouts' do?
> ...

Use them for what? :-)

To get back to your original problem about how to document this, I 
suggesting writing a step-by-step "How to use multiple keyboard 
layouts", using apologetic humor to pick around the whole Charlie 
Foxtrot. <http://g2meyer.com/usablehelp/singles/245.html>

> We're limited to the choice of keys by X...
>
> So basically, a lot of our problems with this pref
> tool, and with keyboard layouts in general, are down
> to problems in X.
> ...

Those are the least of its problems, IMO.

--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/