[TextEditor-mcc] Re: TextEditor built-in shortcuts
- From: Jens Langner <Jens.Langner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: texteditor_mcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:51:36 +0200
Hello Ilkka,
On Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:16:08 +0300, Ilkka Lehtoranta wrote:
[...]
>> There is a wrong built-it association done by TextEditor:
>> Select All is associated to Right-Amiga-A, and this is a just Amiga
>> standard short-cut which is associated to "Save As..." function (Read
>> Amiga User Interface Style Guide). So a program which manages shortcuts
>> which wants respect Amiga UI Style Guide goes to some conflicts...
>
> Ah well, this is something I was also going to talk ~month ago but for
> Bettestring.mcc class.
>
> RAMIGA+<key> shortcut keys used in TextEditor and Betterstring collide
> easily with menu shortcuts. So sometimes it is causing confusion to
> programmers and users.
The problem with shortcut conflicts is not specific to TE.mcc or
Betterstring.mcc. In fact, the whole shortcut system on AmigaOS is flawed,
IMHO. Just take the fact that menu shortcuts are always case insensitive on
AmigaOS. IMHO menu shortcuts should be case sensitive to allow for more
different key combinations. In addition, standard menu shortcuts like
Copy/Paste/Undo/Redo/SelectAll/UnSelect/Save/SaveAs and so on should be
adapted to the common shortcuts used on other operating systems as well. That
means, a copy operating should always be RAMIGA+C, paste always RAMIGA+V and
select all always RAMIGA+A like it is on other operating systems.
> It could be better if they were not using RAMIGA shortcuts at all but
> something else. There is an option to disable shortcut handling but it is
> not elegant...
>
> Any thoughts?
Well, first of all keep in mind that all shortcuts are fully user configurable
for TE.mcc. That means, the user is fully under control to change the
shortcuts for every application. So in case there are conflicts the should
should be able to change the corresponding shortcut to use a different key
combination.
But looking at the whole picture of those shortcuts conflicts, there isn't
really a unified solution for that. Nor would it help to change the internal
default shortcuts to not use RAMIGA. There are several aspects on an
application level that have to be kept in mind. Take for example the common
mistake that many application developers do when assigning shortcuts. Often,
and this was the case for YAM as well for a long time, the developer decided
to put the shortcut definitions into the translation file so that the
translators may defined their own shortcuts based on the localisation. This
is completly wrong and should be avoided under all circumstances. Shortcut
definitions have to be the same througout all different languages or
otherwise there won't be just confusions but it will definitly end up in the
shortcut conflicts you were refering to. So if an application developer
decides to use TE.mcc he requires to take actions to make sure that the
configured shortcuts in TE.mcc won't conflict with the shortcuts in his own
application - so it is not the task of TE.mcc to ensure that the internal
shortcuts won't conflict with every application. To achieve this task, there
is this quite new MUIM_TextEditor_QueryKeyAction method in TE.mcc which can
be used to query a texteditor object for all his key combinations used.
In fact YAM is IMHO a very good example how shortcut handling should be
performed and how shortcut conflicts should be avoided. YAM itself uses this
QueryKeyAction method to check which shortcuts are used for the common
copy/paste, etc. operations and then use these shortcuts in his own menus. In
the end this allows to keep the user configuration of TE.mcc while avoiding
any shortcut conflict.
So IMHO it is the fully responsibility of the applications alone to take
actions to avoid shortcut conflicts and not TE.mcc's responsibility. Ergo, if
there is a shortcut conflict in applications the applications have to be
fixed to use QueryKeyAction or the user should be instructed to change the
shortcut configuration of TE.mcc himself.
cheers,
jens
--
Jens Langner, Dresden/Germany
http://www.jens-langner.de/
Wenn eine Frau nicht spricht soll man sie um Himmels willen nicht unterbrechen
-- Enriyeu Castaldo
--
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