Re: KEYNAV:GtkMenu, GtkMenuItem ... (bug 53544)

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

Padraig O'Briain wrote:

> Focus in menu bar
> =================
> Should the mnemonics for the menu items in the currently displayed menu work?

Yes.

> Should the mnemonics for items in the menu bar work? 

Hmmm... that's a good question.  You've probably just hit upon the
reason why Windows allows you to give focus to menu titles on the title
bar *without* posting the corresponding menu-- so you can use mnemonics
to navigate around the menu bar before posting your chosen menu.

I think given the way we're implementing it, though (i.e. menu is always
posted, even though focus remains on menu title), mnemonics for other
menu titles on the menu bar should *not* work in this situation.  That
is, once a menu has been posted, only the mnemonics on that menu should
be active, even if focus is still on the menu title and not within the
menu itself.  Anyone disagree...?

> Should these be entered by Alt+key?

Once a menu is posted, it should ideally be possible to activate the
items on that menu by pressing the mnemonic key either with *or* without
the Alt key.  This minimises the amount of keyboarding effort required
to activate a menu item if you know you don't have to hold down Alt, but
doesn't penalise you if you don't.  (A new user might logically assume
you have to hold down Alt, as you do everywhere else).

This assumes that accelerator locking is on, though, something which I
think Havoc suggested would be the default for 2.0, and Owen suggested
wouldn't  :)  If accelerator locking is switched off, you'll always have
to press Alt+mnemonic in this situation, otherwise you'll end up
re-assigning the accelerator of the currently-focused menu item instead.

> Focus in menu
> =============
> I assume that entering the mnemonic character for any menu item should activate
> the menu item.

Yes.

> Should mnemonics for menu items in previous menus or menu bar work?

I don't think so, no.  Same reasoning as before-- once a menu is posted
and has focus, only the mnemonics for that menu should be active.

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems