Re: emacs for everything?

[Floyd L. Davidson]

Kai Grossjohann <kai@emptydomain.de> wrote:
>floyd@barrow.com (Floyd L. Davidson) writes:
>
>> Kai Grossjohann <kai@emptydomain.de> wrote:
>>
>>>The Windows-style Start menu navigation is also quite nice: P selects
>>>the only item starting with P.  If there is more than one item
>>>starting with P, then P moves to the first one, and you can hit P
>>>again to move to the next one.  Then RET selects it.
>>
>> That is a very fundamental difference in what we do with window
>> managers.  I start virtually *no* applications from a window manager,
>> either by menu or with icons.  I work in many different directories,
>> and anything started by the window manager thinks it is in the
>> home directory.  So I start almost everything from a command line.
>> The exceptions are tools that are not tied to any given working
>> directory (xmag, a couple local database programs, xcalc, my clock,
>> stuff like that).
>
>There's a misunderstanding, here.  I was only referring to the way how
>you can select items from the Windows Start menu using the keyboard.
>
>I didn't mean that the Window Start menu, per se, is useful.

Hee hee, okay...  I did assume you were actually using a Start menu.

>But the menu navigation could be used for any menu, such as for the
>list of windows, or for the window operations (you know, iconify,
>maximize, resize, ...), or you name it.
>
>Please note that the Windows Start menu navigation is different from
>the way other Windows menus are navigated.  In the other menus, each
>item has an underlined character which serves as the accelerator.  But
>the Windows Start menu provides for two items having the same
>accelerator, and it does not require explicit specification of the
>accelerator (it's always the first character).

I use menus so little that the accelerators have never been of much
interest to me.

I basically put things in menus that I won't otherwise remember,
and if it is in a menu, I just use the mouse to access it.

Many of the menu items I have are somewhat obscure functions
that, for example, I might only use ever several months.  One
effect of that is not only do I not remember or use the
accelerator, I can't even remember a name.  So my menu needs to
be as descriptive as I can make it and trying to pick a name
that makes for a good accelerator is not important.  I've just
decided to totally ignore such things as accelerators, and use
the mouse only for menus.

Hence I'd never noticed the difference you are describing.

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson           <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)                         floyd@barrow.com