Re: gtk-devel-list digest, Vol 1 #1761 - 13 msgs

[Bill Haneman <bill haneman sun com>]

> Right, but neither of those is necessarily this dialog. Customize
> view... could typically have other stuff related to the app-specific
> aspects of the view (I don't know), and the check items are an example
> of something that isn't this dialog.
> 
> > Nah, way too clunky.  It might be accessible, but it's annoying and
> > difficult to use.  Drag and drop is much more intuitive; it "just
> > works".
> 
> I'm suggesting the menu in addition to DND so it's accessible.
> i.e. menu instead of dialog, should have DND either way.  Not
> intending to contrast menu with DND.

Right.  The "just works" argument doesn't apply to all users.  The
addition of the menu would be helpful for lots of situations.
>  
> > Even if you make the UI dnd-based, nothing prevents you from providing a
> > fully keyboard accessible way to do the same thing.  Eg. keyboard-based
> > movement could be triggered by a keyboard combination, then you could
> > pick a column and move it with the cursor keys.
>
> It's easier to find standard Shift+F10 to open a context menu than to
> learn a custom key shortcut for "begin move" perhaps. Unless we used
> the same shortcut used elsewhere, e.g. whatever we have for initiating
> move on an applet or paned or handlebox or something. I think applet
> begin move is in the menu, paned is just "focus handle then space,"
> not sure about handlebox.

Right; there are also problems with key-combination clashes, etc. to
worry about.  

An interface that requires multiple keypresses or repeat-keys (to
emulate drag) is also much less accessible that one that has an action
that moves a column "to the front"; not only does it work better for GOK
users, it's less disorienting for blind users, who otherwise would
constantly have to ask themselves "ok, I moved the column left, uhh, how
many columns?"  So even if we have some action or keybinding that moves
a column "one place" to the "left/right", there's a case for also
providing "make to first", "move to last".

-Bill

> 
> Havoc

-- 
Bill Haneman <bill haneman sun com>