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From: | Benja Fallenstein |
Subject: | Re: [Gzz] A preliminary quasimode-based interface for Fenfire and Loom |
Date: | Sun, 23 Mar 2003 14:11:27 +0100 |
User-agent: | Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.3) Gecko/20030319 Debian/1.3-3 |
Tuomas Lukka wrote:
Text entered without pressing a modifier is simply normal text input. It goes where the text cursor is. If there is no text cursor, one is created at the end of the currently focused node or literal.Hmm, I dislike the "one is created" stuff - why not just always have one? The user should see where the text will go...
Because the text at the beginning is most relevant for understanding what the node is about, but wanting to type at the end of the node is much more common than wanting to type at the beginning of the node. I.e., when you're not typing, the text should be scrolled to the beginning of the node, but when you start typing, it should jump to the end.
We could show a text cursor at the end anyway, which may be outside the viewport before you start typing...
The *Left* and *Right* keys are used to move the text cursor. If there is no text cursor, *Left* creates one at the beginning and *Right* creates one at the end of the text in the focused node or literal.Ok, what about move word, move sentence?
Not specified yet :-)I think I'd probably go for the usual Ctrl-Left / Ctrl-Right for moving words.
Alt is used for the movement quasimode. That is, while you hold down Alt (and no other modifier), you can move around in the structure using the arrowsets known from zzstructure. Our arrowsets are 9-key: we have ``uiojkln,.`` and ``wersdfxcv``. This allows convenient rotation of the wheel view. Pressing Shift while Alt is held down enters a specialcommand quasimode.Why not 'Ctrl'? Or one of the other modifiers that microsoft has excreted on our keyboards?
Right, should've said that.Mainly ergonomical reasons. Shift is easiest to type, Alt is next on most keyboards today-- a nice big key left of the spacebar, which you can easily reach with the thumb. Using the thumb is especially nice as it may be held down for long periods of time as you navigate the structure, and the thumb is a) a strong finger and b) easy to use independently of the other fingers, which you may need for typing the arrow keys.
Also, Ctrl is not good in Loom because we want to integrate well with PUIs, and many PUI users have habituated e.g. Ctrl-X/C/V for operating the PUI clipboard, I think.
As for the MS keys, they have preprogrammed functions in Win which we cannot control, plus do you really think we can trap them reliably among Javas? I somehow cannot imagine they all use the same name for them :-)
Btw: you used the term "quasimodal" somewhere -- I just get images of hunchbacks ;)
Fine with me ;-) - Benja
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