Copyright 2004 by M. Uli Kusterer Fri, 29 Nov -1901 11:06:32 GMT Comments on article blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts at Zathras.de http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm witness_dot_of_dot_teachtext_at_gmx_dot_net (M. Uli Kusterer) witness_dot_of_dot_teachtext_at_gmx_dot_net (M. Uli Kusterer) en-us http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment9 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment9 mpt writes:









http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment8 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment8 Uli Kusterer writes:
@mpt: Hi, great you found this, and great to hear you guys managed to make progress. Clicking the icon to select all is OK. But clicking the text isn't really. It breaks forgiveness and predictability IMHO. OTOH, on the Mac, you can double-click text to select a word, and triple-click to select a line. That also works in URL fields (as does the 'Select All' menu item). That's handy, consistent, and not as surprising as having one field that constantly selects all its text even when you're inserting. E.g. my Dad always leaves the "http://www." in place and adds the previous URL to that, and I think he should be allowed to.

Regarding 'Send': What about a keyboard shortcut? In EyeTV, you can use the un-decorated + and - keys and the arrow keys to switch between channels and change volume and timeshift TV. There is a menu item for each of these functions, and it has the shortcut next to it. The advantage here is that the shortcut is discoverable. People can use the menu item, and the shortcut will slowly burn itself into their retina, and eventually they'll just press return. I'm not married to the button, but iChat has no 'send' button, and I still get questions from people who don't chat very often.
http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment7 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment7 mpt writes:




I appreciate the behavior of single-clicking in the URL field could be argued either way, consistency vs. convenience. There are some ways the situation could be improved without violating either, though. For example, in Epiphany (like in Safari and Camino), clicking the page icon selects all the text; but in Firefox and in Konqueror this doesn't work. And Konqueror has a special button specifically for clearing the URL field (equivalent to those in Mac search fields), but it looks terrible.


http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment6 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment6 CAPS LOCK:
Did you ever worked on a laptop with azerty keyboard and typing numbers?
Then you will understand why there is a caps lock button!
http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment5 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment5 Uli Kusterer writes:
@Aaron: Well, scroll lock and insert aren't near another frequently-used key like caps lock is. On the Mac, scroll lock is F14, and the insert key is "help". So those two are already gone there, even though I'd prefer they'd got rid of caps lock.

@Daniel: Thanks, I don't know how I missed this. The only thing I now have to do is change IntelliType to no longer swap alt/Windows on my keyboard because if MacOS X *and* IntelliType swap the keys, they're back in the original (wrong) positions on my keyboard ... :-S
http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment4 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment4 Daniel J. Wilson writes:

http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment3 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment3 Aaron Ballman writes:
@Uli -- your English is infinitely better than my German; glad I could help. :-)

I think the purpose to caps lock is diminished if the software requiring it wasn't flawed. If it requires all caps, the it should uppercase the text upon entry and not rely on the user to enter it that way. I don't strongly believe caps lock should stick around -- but I'd vote off other keys long before caps lock or insert. Scroll Lock's the one I'd remove. ;-)
http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment2 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment2 Uli Kusterer writes:
@Aaron: Thanks for teaching me a new word: "acuity" :-)

Well, I count myself among the "data entry people", and I don't use caps lock either. Especially not the way it is on the Mac, where it only works on characters, and not on other keys like the number keys.

Thanks for the Explorer "workaround", though a simple "open new explorer window" menu item would IMHO be better for beginners than littering their desktop with dozens of windows.
http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment1 http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-mpt-ubuntu-thoughts.htm#comment1 Aaron Ballman writes:
I agree about mouse-over eye candy. That's a good example of "expecting the user to have foreknowledge." If the user doesn't know they can click it, why would they bring the mouse over it in the first place? It's pure eye candy, and serves very little purpose. The only time it's truly solving a problem is when the clickable area is small (such as window close widgets) -- in that case, it's solving a problem for people with visual acuity issue.

As for the caps lock and insert keys -- there is a purpose to them, but I wish it'd be an opt-in key (you have to purchase a special keyboard to get them). People who do copious amounts of data entry use both keys fairly extensively.

As for the Windows Explorer "flaw" -- there's been a preference since its inception to open new windows any time you double click a folder. Go to Tools->Folder Options and select "Open each folder in its own window." It's not a total solution, but it's not as flawed as you make it sound like. ;-)

And I agree with your view on the Send button. Never rely on hidden shortcuts -- those are for power users. For something as basic as sending an IM, you can't rely on a hidden shortcut. Otherwise you'd miss out on a large portion of the population (granted, that portion is dwindling, I believe). Sending an IM is not a power feature, so it shouldn't rely on only power feature hidden interactions. To me, this is like saying "we don't need Edit->Cut because the user can just type Ctrl+X."