Re: [Usability] Keyboard prefs, layouts tab

[Joachim Noreiko <jnoreiko yahoo com>]

--- Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com> wrote:

> On Mar 25, 2006, at 11:55 PM, Joachim Noreiko wrote:
> >
> > I'm working on updating the user guide for this
> preference tool,
     

> > Is 'Selected Layouts' a good choice of label? I'm
> about to write'To 
> > remove a layout, select it and press Remove'. But
> hang on... they're 
> > *all* selected, they're called Selected Layouts!
> Should we avoid
> > overloading the word 'select' as it's so important
> in the interface?
> 
> Absolutely. What is the list for? Windows has a list
> labelled 
> "Installed keyboard languages and layouts". I can
> kind of understand 
> that, though it seems to be to do with disk space
> rather than utility. 
> Mac OS X has a list "Select the keyboard layouts,
> input methods, and 
> palettes that appear in the input menu". I can
> understand that, though 
> it's a bit wordy. But what is "Selected layouts"
> good for?


I was thinking of "Available layouts", but that could
suggest that they're the only ones to choose from, and
that the Add button requires you to install more from
disk.
We should think of an alternative before we file a
bug.

> 
> I've spent a couple of minutes staring at this
> "Layouts" tab, and I 
> still have *no idea* how it's supposed to work. I
> don't know what the 
> list is for. I don't know why you'd want to
> rearrange the items in the 
> list -- and if you would, what's wrong with dragging
> them or using 
> Alt+Up and Alt+Down, instead of using separate "Up"
> and "Down" buttons. 

As far as I can tell, the topmost one is the default.
The order in the list affects how they cycle with you
press keys defined elswhere. (I must add this to the
help.)

> I don't know why the list has radio buttons
> disguised as checkboxes. 

They do nothing anyway, as far as I can tell. I've
filed a bug.

> Without reading that bug report, I don't know what
> "Separate group for 
> each window" is for. I don't know why I'd want to
> "Reset [t]o 
> Defaults". And the help doesn't.
> 
> > Was the matter of the "separate group for each
> window" label resolved?
> > The bug is still open:
> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=308282
> 
> That smells like it needs a pair of radio buttons.
> Switching layout applies to: (*) every window  (*)
> current window
> But quite possibly tossing a coin and hard-coding
> the result would be 
> better.

I suspect hard-coding would invoke Geek-Wrath.

However...
When you add more than one layout, you have no
indication of which is active, unless you know how to
add the indicator to the panel yourself. This is a
major usability problem, and the maintainer doesn't
want to fix it (Pseudobug: Waiting For Godot).
Given that, I think that allowing one layout per
window is more likely to get the user hopelessly
confused than anything else. Especially when it's the
default, AFAIK.
This option could be shunted to GConf, at least until
there is an automatic indicator.


		
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