[haiku-bugs] Re: [Haiku] #6365: Switching keyboard shortcut accelerator key should not remap keys
- From: "bonefish" <trac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:53:02 -0000
#6365: Switching keyboard shortcut accelerator key should not remap keys
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Reporter: rq | Owner: axeld
Type: bug | Status: closed
Priority: normal | Milestone: R1
Component: Preferences/Keymap | Version: R1/alpha2
Resolution: invalid | Keywords:
Blocked By: | Has a Patch: 0
Platform: All | Blocking:
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Changes (by bonefish):
* status: new => closed
* resolution: => invalid
Comment:
Replying to [ticket:6365 rq]:
> Switching keyboard shortcut accelerator key should not remap keys, but
should actually only switch shortcuts instead (if possible). The problems
with remapping are:
>
> * the keyboard shown in Keyboard Layout preflet swaps keys (cf #6362),
and that's not intuitive, because at the same time key names change in the
menu.
That's totally intended. The keymap shows the mapping (i.e. function) of
the keys.
> * terminal applications begin expecting different shortcuts, e.g., Alt+C
instead of Ctrl+C for quiting. That's very inconvenient for terminal
users.
That is only inconvenient for people used to an OS using the Control key
as shortcut modifier and inconsequent terminal program implementations. It
is obviously impossible to use Control as shortcut key and as control key
in the terminal at the same time, so these terminal programs invent
alternative shortcuts for functions that have otherwise system-wide common
shortcuts. Great solution!
Haiku's solution is consistent: If you use Alt as Command key (which is
the default), the Control key is mapped to Control and acts like that in
the terminal (just as on the Mac or on Amiga (at least back in the olden
days)). Setting the Control key as the shortcut modifier, switches the
Control and Alt key mapping transparently to all applications, which is
exactly what is intended. Otherwise all applications that use the Control
function for something would have to handle clashes, which is simply
stupid.
> * potentially, other applications will also suffer. For example, I had a
great inconvenience when I swapped Cmd and Ctrl in OS X's preferences, and
vmWare Fusion began treating Cmd as Ctrl and vice-versa (thus I had to use
Cmd-shortcuts in Windows running in vmWare until I updated it to a version
that allowed me to remap shortcuts).
Er, potentially, Haiku is not OS X, nor does it even run VMware Fusion.
> Generally, I think an application should always be able to know which
exactly physical key was pressed if it needs it. I suspect that simply
swapping keys deeply in the OS, like we seem to be doing here, is sort of
limiting.
I don't see why.
The thing that needs to be added to Haiku is a fully featured shortcut
management and a respective API. That would give the user total control
over shortcuts and would also allow reconfiguration to the stupid setups
of other OS that some users want to punish themselves with.
--
Ticket URL: <http://dev.haiku-os.org/ticket/6365#comment:1>
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