Re: [Usability] Using Control-Esc and Windows keys to access the start menu

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Tue, 2006-08-22 at 09:45 +0200, Lennart Borgman wrote:
> Shaun McCance wrote:
> > That's eight keyboard shortcuts being taken away
> > from applications.  One of those uses Ctrl, which
> > we try very hard to let applications use.  You'll
> > notice nearly all of our current global keyboard
> > shortcuts use Alt.
> >   
> I think a lot of users would benefit from Alans proposal (and I guess 
> Alt+F1 shoudl be added too for the main menu?). I wonder if it is very 
> important that those keybindings are beeing taken away? Since I do not 
> know Gnome yet I would like you to ask you a bit more in detail:
> 
> - With Super do you mean what I call "windows keys"?

Yes.  Underneath Gnome sits X.  A full explanation of the
X keyboard model would fry both of our brains, but suffice
it to say that X has traditionally used the terms Control,
Alt, Super, Hyper, and Meta to refer to whatever modifier
keys are configured on whatever keyboard might be attached.

With the advent of Windows keyboards, the Windows key has
been configured (by most distributions) to be a modifier
key attached to the Super modifier.

> - What kind of applications actually use Super?

Very few, because applications generally do not want to
rely on a non-standard key existing.  Sun keyboards, for
example, don't have a Super key, though they do have a
Meta key.

> - Are those applications perhaps mainly programming IDE/editors?

They are most likely to be vertical market applications,
where people buy their computers to fit the application,
rather than the other way around.

> - Can an application override the global binding of super?

No.  If the window manager captures the key stroke,
applications will never even see it.

--
Shaun