[haiku-development] Re: AltGr Key, key_map, and the US-International Keyboard

  • From: John Scipione <jscipione@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2012 03:28:46 -0400

On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 2:53 AM, Stefano Ceccherini
<stefano.ceccherini@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 2012/4/6 John Scipione <jscipione@xxxxxxxxx>:
>> On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 1:20 AM, Humdinger <humdingerb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Option alone + a key isn't used, because that is reserved for special
>> characters. Ctrl+Alt is a fine replacement for what Win is used for on
>> Windows.
>
> The more I read into this thread, the more I'm convinced that we
> should simply conform to what it's done on windows (or, better, on
> linux) wrt modifier keys.
>
> The original motivations to use alt for shortcuts instead of ctrl
> (ctrl is used in the terminal for control characters) are becoming
> less and less important, and an user who switches from another OS will
> be very annoyed by these changes. I mean: 10 years ago I thought that
> using ALT for shortcuts was indeed better, also if you think about the
> position of the keys on the keyboard. But doing this change means
> either:
> - Your AltGR key is used like the left ALT, so you lose the ability to
> enter special charachters (and that's bad, since you use it like this
> on other OS, and frankly, no one uses Haiku exclusively, and no one
> will ever switch, if it means learning again all the key combos)
> - Your AltGR key is used to enter special characters, so you lose the
> ability to use it like the left ALT (for example, for CTRL-ALT key
> combos) and it's still bad in case the combo keys are on the right
> side of the keyboard.
>

There is a long and important history behind the Haiku modifier keys
that I am not going to get into right now. But they are a perfectly
valid choice and have much more to do with simply using control in
terminal. We do not and should not blindly copy Windows or Linux.

Perhaps I am arrogant but I expect people from other OS's to either
adapt to the Haiku way or switch switch them in Keymap to how they
want them. But the defaults are what they are for a reason, a good
one.

John Scipione

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. haiku-development
  3. Archive
  4. 04-2012