[Inkscape-devel] Window Manager Modifiers

[jiho]

On 2007-August-05  , at 00:13 , Carsten Haitzler (The Rasterman) wrote:
> On Sat, 4 Aug 2007 18:51:10 +0200 jiho <jo.irisson at gmail.com> babbled:
>> First of all, it was not my intention to start a flame war or
>> anything. It is just my personal opinion that what lacks the more
>> cruelly to Linux desktop currently is consistency and keybindings is
>> one particularly clear example. I hoped that mentioning it on this
>> list, where the problem is regularly brought up, would get the ball
>> rolling to the correct people (be they freedesktop or someone else).
>> Anyway, I happily use Mac OS X (where keybindings are quite
>> consistent and can be edited easily anyway) and won't "fight" for
>> linux to get better... I just hope it will, because I like the
>> development model more ;-)
>
> here's the problem. in windows or OSX - you have no CHOICE. you get  
> your "wm"
> with the bindings it comes with - and that's it. sure - some of  
> these bindings
> can be changed - and that is no different to x11 and window  
> managers -the
> difference being there is not just 1 wm. there are many - with many  
> many many
> different features, ideas and design goals. they will all probably  
> have
> different needs for bindings based on these features. asking every  
> wm to NOT
> use some modifier or to all use exactly the same isn't going to  
> happen -

Actually, this is what I hope will happen ;) I don't think everything  
can work with everything else if there is not at least a little  
planning done ahead. This kind of planning is done for each program  
but currently independently because most are managed by different  
teams. It would be good to have this done at a little higher level,  
for the purpose of unification. I think this can be compared with  
document formats: of course every word processing software could work  
with its own, custom made format but wouldn't it be better if all  
used odt? I think it would.
Of course the point is not to force every WM to do change its  
keybindings but I think it wouldn't hurt to have a standard defined,  
for interoperability and best usability, and then projects who care  
can adopt it. FreeDektop seems to be the right organization to define  
such a standard and, in my opinion, this standard should be "use  
META, and combinations of META with other modifiers, for all WM/ 
desktop level keyboard shortcuts" for the reasons I explained in my  
previous email.

JiHO
---
http://jo.irisson.free.fr/