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Re: keyboard shortcut problems

Tim Boudreau wrote:

There simply may not be enough keys to go around, sans one modifier key



I would question that assumption, especially on the Mac. Without using alt as a stand-alone modifier, and ignoring the (to me unusable) command-control-shift-option combination, I still count 8 viable modifier combinations:

command, control, command-shift, control-shift, command-option, control-option, command-shift-option, control-shift-option

If all you use for the accelerator keys are numbers and letters, that still gives you 288 commands you can map -- more if you use punctuation and F keys. I seriously doubt most users could reasonably remember or effectively use that many mappings. Even if all you use is command and control, that's still 72 commands you can map with numbers and letters. As a point of reference, I use Netbeans everyday, and typically only use about 15 key commands. I know that number because I always remap all the commands I use to be more Mac-like (I haven't gotten to try your changes in 4.0 yet, but I'm looking forward to it -- thanks!).

In addition, all the Windows/Unix keyboards I have used only have control and alt (unless you usurp an OS specific key, like the Windows key or the menu key), so unless I'm missing something, you have only 6 standard combinations there (ctrl, alt, ctrl-shift, alt-shift, ctrl-alt, ctrl-alt-shift).

So, given that it interferes with a standard input method, and the fact that you still have more viable combinations than on other platforms, I'm not sure why one would ever need to use alt as a key accelerator on the Mac.

Rob

P.S. I know some will argue that they want to use alt as a modifier because they want their app to work exactly the same across all platforms. Briefly, I'll say 1) I would argue most users don't use multiple platforms during the course of their day, so it's better to make your app integrate well with the platform they are using and 2) Since it interferes with a standard input method, the notion that it can work identically across all plaforms is false.


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References: 
 >Netbeans 4.0 beta and french keyboard (From: Henry Story <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Netbeans 4.0 beta and french keyboard (From: Bjørn Ole Bakke <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Netbeans 4.0 beta and french keyboard (From: Henry Story <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Netbeans 4.0 beta and french keyboard (From: Tim Boudreau <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Netbeans 4.0 beta and french keyboard (From: Henry Story <email@hidden>)
 >keyboard shortcut problems (From: Henry Story <email@hidden>)
 >Re: keyboard shortcut problems (From: Tim Boudreau <email@hidden>)



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