Re: [Usability] Rhythmbox and default GTK widget activation key

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:

> Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 23:16:13 +1300
> From: Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>
> To: Usability gnome conference <usability gnome org>
> Subject: Re: [Usability] Rhythmbox and default GTK widget activation key
>
> On 3 Jan, 2006, at 3:40 AM, Manu Cornet wrote:
> > ...
> > * Currently, Ctrl-Spacebar does what user would expect Spacebar to do
> > (play/pause the currently select song).
>
> That's unfortunate. When you have a drink in one hand and a plate of
> party food in the other, or a phone in one hand and a printout in the
> other, you really want a key for Play/Pause that you can use with your
> elbow. :-)
>
> > * Pressing Spacebar activates the selected widget, and therefore can
> > have very different actions : play the song from the beginning even if
> > it was already playing (when the song is the selected widget), play
> > the first song of the album from the beginning (when the album is
> > selected),
>
> I was just about to say "What? Pressing Space in Nautilus doesn't open
> the selected file, so why should pressing Space in Rhythmbox play the
> selected item?" ... Then I noticed that pressing Space in Nautilus
> *does* open the selected file. Oh dear.
>
> Nevertheless, I think the usefulness and precedent of Space as a global
> Play/Pause key is too strong, and the key's function shouldn't be
> dependent on whatever happens to be selected at the time.
>
> > or even have the right behavior (play/pause) when the "play" button is
> > selected.
> > ...
>
> Or completely the wrong behavior if one of the other buttons is
> focused! A hackish way of fixing that side of it is to prevent
> Rhythmbox's buttons from taking focus, on the grounds that they're
> equivalent to a toolbar.

*Cough* use a toolbar *cough*

A row of buttons does not a toolbar make.

I'd like to think the HIG says as much but I have the strange feeling it
doesn't.

- Alan