2012.04.07 06:23, John Scipione rašė:
On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 10:39 PM, Ryan Leavengood <leavengood@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:leavengood@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 4:04 PM, John Scipione <jscipione@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:jscipione@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> I implemented the concept of using UTF-8 characters as modifier key
> labels in menus and, the bitmaps might actually be better, I am not
> sure. Here is what using UTF-8 characters might look like:
>
> http://imagebin.org/206917
>
> What do you think?
I am not a fan. I understand the idea behind them, but it doesn't seem
like an improvement, just a way to avoid using bitmaps.
Other alternatives are just to use text for the modifier keys, which
is what Windows and Linux does. Though I still prefer the bitmaps to
that. It sets Haiku apart in a small way.
By text I assume you mean letters, which, doesn't really help unless
we were to localize them, which, while it could be done, seems a bit
silly to me. Using bitmaps is better than just having the same set in
regular letters.
How exactly is it better?
Since we are set on using key roles in the menus rather than key labels I have the bitmap solution ready to go. If this experiment with using symbols fails then we can go with that. What will change is that the ALT bitmap will change to CMD and the bitmaps won't change based on changes to the modifier keys in Keymap.
It will make stuff less intuitive. I don't know who is behind "we" you mentioned, but I'm certainly not a part of "we" then. In my opinion, it's silly to fix something that works by introducing a change which will make that something not work.
Perhaps internationalization is not important here, it seems like the modifier keys on most keyboards around the world are not localized. Shift is written as "Shift", Control is written as "Ctrl", and Alt is written as "Alt", except for German keyboards with there weird Strg key. But then, the Germans have always been a little strange about control. :)
Perhaps Ctrl, Alt and Shift are indeed rarely localized, but I've seen a spanish keyboard which said Inicio instead of Home, and other keys were localized too. Lithuanian standard also localizes all keycaps, even if it it's not followed by manufacturers. And yeah, Germans use Strg as you are well aware of. IMO, all textual keycaps should be localizable, regardless of whether or not they are used in the menus afterwards. And IF textual names are used, they should be used in a localized form, regardless of whether or not they are bitmaps.
Rimas
