On 10/12/06, David Gowers <00ai99@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: [...]
On 10/13/06, Philip Ganchev <phil.ganchev@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On 10/12/06, David Gowers <00ai99@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On 10/12/06, Philip Ganchev <phil.ganchev@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > [...]
[...]
> A single key would definitely be peferable. What is the menu key? Is > it a standard key, found on most keyboards? Unfortunately not. It is a key found on keyboards with the 'Windows' keys or their equivalent. GTK treats it as an indication to pop up the menus (Alt does sort-of the same thing; Shift-F10 does exactly the same thing)
You're not suggesting that Shift+F10 is better than Control+F, right? At least Control key and 'F' key are close to each-other. [...]
> There is modality in that typing a key in search mode shows you > commands that match that key, while in normal mode it executes a > command. A way to avoid that is to use a quasi-mode, such as > searching only while Alt is pressed, and executing the selected > command when Alt is released. This may work, though I expect it would > be ergonomically hard. > > Instead, I would suggest that the single-keystroke commands be > removed. The search system does the same job in a much more general, > discoverable, understandable way (since it gives feedback). It is I cannot agree with that. I use those commands a lot, to switch paint tools for instance; there is no way that I could get the same speed of workflow if I was *required* to use the search system for basics like that. I think you overlook that, the value of keyboard shortcuts to a user's workflow.
The people I know who use Gimp use it only occasionally, and they do not use shortcuts. I did not know they existed until someone mentioned it in reply to my post. I suppose there are ergonomic advantages to one-hand command invocation if 1. you hold the mouse with the other hand, and 2. there is a keyboard shortcut for the action you want, and 3. you know what it is without having to check. How many command shortcuts can a user be expected to remember? 10? 20? So we are choosing between the ergonomic convenience of one-key invocation for 20 commands, and the cognitive convenience of the general search for all commands, current and future. You say that moving your hand from the mouse to the keyboard takes too long. You must edit with lightning speed. For me, moving my hand to the keyboard is negligible compared to choosing the right points on the image to apply the selected tool, choosing the right color, etc.
"transform, rotate the layer 90 degrees" That sounds awkward. In general, I think this form would be good VERB NOUN [..] (CATEGORY) where [..] is any additional part; category could be more that one, comma-separated, but would usually be only one.) so in this case Rotate layer 90 degrees (transform)
Sounds good.
I believe that you will find that leaving out the 'the' is necessary to make some of the longer command descriptions reasonably readable.
Perhaps. I thought that using whole sentences would be clearer. For example, "rotate layer 90 degrees" can be taken as a phrase about a kind of layer, a "rotate layer". Clarity is important. _______________________________________________ Gimp-developer mailing list Gimp-developer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer
