Re: [Usability] Should Shift+Ctrl+Click select a range or just the item clicked?

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On 10 May 2006, at 23:22, Gabriel Burt wrote:

> On 5/10/06, Calum Benson <Calum Benson sun com> wrote:
> > I filed a bug about this years ago:
> >
> > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=75484
> >
> > I'm not sure it's really a HIG issue; the toolkit should just make
> > sure it works like that everywhere, unless we can think of any common
> > exceptions.
>
> I think it is a HIG issue since application developers often create
> their own widgets that need behavior like this.  For example, F-Spot
> has a custom IconView widget that is a subclass of Gtk.Layout, and it
> uses the same shift/ctrl + key/click to select items.

I see your point, but it's not clear where to draw the line :/

Developers who are writing custom widgets need to be familiar enough  
with the basic widgets to do the job properly, and the basic widgets'  
own documentation needs to be good enough to let them do this IMHO.   
I don't think the HIG should be the place to describe the  
machinations of every widget in the toolkit... I'm trying to think of  
ways to make the HIG smaller as it is, not bigger :)

Still, if you feel strongly about it, please file a bug against the  
HIG so we don't forget about it, and we'll revisit in the context of  
whatever changes we're making for the next version.

Cheeri,
Calum.

--
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            Java Desktop System Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems