Re: [Usability] new tab shortcut is different in gnome-terminal and

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On Nov 2, 2006, at 7:43 PM, Carlos Eduardo Rodrigues Diógenes wrote:
> ...
> I note that gnome-teminal uses ctrl + T, while epiphny uses ctrl + t to
> create a new tab. These shortcut keys wouldn't have to be equal?
> ...

The keyboard combinations used by graphical applications in Windows and 
Gnome, such as Ctrl+T, clash with longstanding keyboard combos used by 
many terminal applications for editing commands.

Combination  Terminal                              Gnome

Ctrl+W       delete to beginning of previous word  close window/tab
Ctrl+T       transpose previous two characters     new tab
Ctrl+A       go to beginning of line               select all
Ctrl+C       break                                 copy

So because many people using gnome-terminal will expect Ctrl+W to 
delete, rather than to close the window, gnome-terminal has to use 
Shift+Ctrl+W where other applications use Ctrl+W. The same applies to 
Ctrl+T, Ctrl+C, and to other combos for internal consistency.

Mac OS X avoids this problem by using Ctrl+letter for terminal editing 
commands, and Command+something for normal commands. And GNUstep avoids 
the problem by using Ctrl+letter for terminal editing commands, and 
Alt+letter for normal commands.

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