Re: [Usability] [Fwd: RE: Your final comments on gswitchit in 2.4...]

[Joaquin Cuenca Abela <e98cuenc yahoo com>]

--- "Sergey V. Oudaltsov"
<sergey oudaltsov clients ie> wrote:
> 
> > 3) Either you can show the preview on real time,
> or
> > you should not show it.  It doesn't looks like
> > something useful anyway, so I guess that the best
> idea
> > is just to dig it out.  If you want to keep it,
> maybe
> > you should generate png or svg's for each layout,
> > store them, and show them at request, instead of
> > generating a whole ps, and using ggv.
> No pregeneration is possible here - there are too
> many combinations. 
> Well, I can get rid of it (actually, I had too many
> troubles with bonobo 
> and ggv - possibly just because I am not smart
> enough to use them). But 
> I always thought about this feature as a kind of
> "bonus eye candy" 
> (which I did not see in MS OSes up to Win2000 - I
> wonders whether MacOS 
> or XP provide something similar). So, folks, I would
> love to hear more 
> voices on this - whether this is just bloat or a
> nice touch:)

A long time ago I did a little app to learn to type. 
To generate a screen of the layout, I just did my own
little file that has the whole layout, and then I
render it at startup.  It was fast enough to be able
to regenerate it in realtime (and the preview was much
bigger than what I would suggest for a keyboard
switching tool).

That's just to say that it's always possible to do it
in realtime.  If the xdbprint (or whatever it's
called) path it's too slow, then you would have to
redo your own generator or drop it.

Anyway I think that it will suck too much visual space
for no significative gain, so if it was my decision, I
would just drop it.

> > 4) That may be useful.  1 checkbox.
> Yes. From my POW it is not discussible:)
> 
> > 5) needs no GUI.  Just pick an unused, sane,
> hotkey
> > and document it.
> Unfortunately, no. In Russian world (sorry, I again
> refer to the country 
> which I know best of all) people use Shift-Shift,
> Alt-Shift, Right 
> Control - and I'm afraid there is no reasonable
> "default" here (which 
> would take at least 60% of users). So this should be
> visible in UI.

Ask yourself why these people are using different
shortcuts.

When people do things in different ways is either
because sometimes one of these ways is better than the
other.  That makes for a reasonable option.

Sometimes, it's just that there were no default, so
each one grow using its own, different, way of doing
things.  The divergence here is just for historical
reasons, and should be removed.

What are the benefits of using Shift-Shift vs
Alt-Shift vs Right-Control?  None at all.

If people would not have always used Alt-TAB for
switching the current focused application, everybody
will be using a different shortkey (for no good
reason).  A WM maintainer will then face the same
problem that you face now: should he just put a sane
shortcut, and ask users to just use it, or add an
option to set the shortcut?

Of course, just set a sane shortcut.  Otherwise you
end with documentation problems, and there will be no
way to just going to a foreign computer and knowing
what should you do to switch the current keyboard.

> > I also don't understand what's all these
> > groups/layouts/primary/secondary businness, so I
> guess
> > users don't care anyway.
> Do you mean I have to put secondary group checkboxes
> into "Advanced"? 

I mean, I see no need for "secondary group
checkboxes".  I don't even understand what does it
means.  Maybe it makes sense for a xkb developer, but
sure it doesn't makes sense for a user, and has no
businnes on an interface.  What's the goal of these
"secondary group checkboxes"?

> > For the tabs' name (Option #1, etc.), I don't see
> what
> > other options you can have that make you use a
> > notebook at all.
> Well, actually Options 1/2 will only appear in
> "Advanced" mode - that's 
> how I see it.

What do you have in these tabs?  What are you able to
configure there?

Cheers,


=====
Joaquin Cuenca Abela
e98cuenc at yahoo dot com

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