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

  • From: "Adrien Destugues" <pulkomandy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:24:04 +0200

Le Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:04:35 +0200, Rimas Kudelis <rq@xxxxxx> a écrit:

Even ignoring the obvious problem of Control still being a separate key, the Win/Lin mode not correct. It makes Control act as command, but Alt then acts as Control, not Option, and Win-key acts as Option/AltGr. I think the more correct way would be:
Control acts as Cmd
Win acts as Ctrl
Alt and AltGr act as Opt

Well, we have a keymap preference that allows switching them around the way you like it. As far as I know, no other OS allows you to do that in so few clicks. And still, people want to change the default setting.

I think a sane alternative for Terminal would be to use Cmd+Alt+foo or Cmd+Shift+foo to enter Ctrl+foo escape sequences (that is, Cmd+Alt+C would produce ^C). This would not only free the Control key from being the "Terminal" key to something more universal (e.g. command), but would also allow to have identical shortcuts for Copy and paste among all apps. But I have a sad impression that Alt-as-Cmd is something like a holy cow in Haiku – untouchable. :( I think it's a bit silly for a GUI OS to favor consistency with UNIX terminal applications over that with Win/Lin, but I guess this is a minority view, right? :)


Consistency with others OS is not a goal. Consistent behaviour, look, and feel over all apps is one. Do things that make sense (like the "control" key being used for "control" chars) is another goal for Haiku. And replicating BeOS when it's ok to do so, is also an Haiku goal.

And, we still allow to swap the keys around, which most windows or linux oriented people do, like switching tracker to single window mode. On the other hand, I use some other features in Haiku, like focus follows mouse. I understand that this may not please everyone, and I'm ok with having to change a setting for that.

As for the global commands: I was wondering, how much are F1-F12 used in Haiku? Perhaps these 12 keys could be enough to cover all globally needed commands? Or are these reserved for Midnight Commander compatibility?

Command + Fx currently switches workspaces. One more thing to move around to Option key, along with Command+Tab triggering twitcher, and a few others.

--
Adrien.

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