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List:       kde
Subject:    KDE Annoyances/word perfect
From:       Ph <t () h ! reno ! nv ! us>
Date:       1999-10-22 7:41:45
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nice ideas. i found to my surprise that control-x got me to the top of a screen in
one of these programs--unfortunately i can't remember what system.  not
netscape--control home and end work in netscape ok.  and sometimes even the arrow
keys fail in word perfect, nor do control h (backspace) etc work.



"M. David Krauss" wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> I'd like to discuss some aspects, mostly regarding look-and-feel, of KDE that
> bother me, or that I find insufficient.
>
> The KDE developers seem to be adament that KDE is not at all a Windows clone.
> Mostly, this is true. KDE presents a far superior interface, and of course,
> sits on top of the power of Unix. Cheers and congratulations on a fine product.
>
> Nonetheless, there are some instances where it seems the M$ way of doing things
> is taken by default. Windows/Mac design is so pervasive that it requires real
> effort to take a creative and better path.
>
> One issue I have is with text-selection. The ideal selection technique is, IMO,
> that used by GNU Emacs. One can right-click to extend or shrink the selection,
> double-click to select by word, and triple-click to select by line. This is
> extremely helpful.
>
> In KDE, however, one selects text much like in Windows -- limited to a single
> shot, and only by character. In /some/ applications, I find, it is possible to
> select by word, though never by line.
>
> The right-click is usually reserved for a context-menu. Okay, that's fine, a
> design decision with pros and cons either way. Extending selections can be
> accomplished with shift-click in some apps, though not in others. If that were
> made universal, it would be a perfectly good substitute.
>
> Another problem is in movement control. There seems to be no key (?!) for going
> to the top or bottom of a document. If I'm wrong on this, please let me know.
> But it seems like a glaring ommision.
>
> Then there's the lack of consistency in color-settings and other preferences. I
> have set the work-area background color to an off-white on my machine because
> pure white is irritating to me. A toned-down, yellowish off-white with slightly
> bluish-black text is much more comfortable and readable, at least to me. Yet
> here I am, writing this message in the KDE mail client, and the background is
> white. (Note: The To, Cc, and Subject text-fields show the proper color.) Was
> it so inconcievable to the designers that someone might not like white
> backgrounds?
>
> Lastly, and really most important: KDE consistantly assumes the presence of
> exacltly three modifier-keys, alt, ctrl, and shift. Systems with /different/
> modifiers can of course map the keys appropriately on the X11 layer. But
> systems with /more/ keys cannot take advantage of them. My keyboard is one of
> those 104-key jobbers that Microsoft introduced. It has two keys with a little
> Windows-symbol, and one with a picture of a menu. While I'm not too fond of
> Microsoft adding keys arbitrarily, there Is good use I can put these to, or was
> before I got KDE, when I was using Windowmaker. There, I had the window-symbol
> keys mapped to Meta, and WindowMaker configured to use them for all its
> controls -- leaving the Alt-keys free for applications to read. (The menu-key
> was, of course, "Menu".)
>
> But under KDE, I can't seem to do that. Instead of capturing a full keypress
> in its configuration, KDE captures just one keysym, and forces you to select
> modifiers from a set of three check-boxes -- alt, ctrl, and shift. Ugh!
>
> Well, I sound like a grump. But like mothers say, 'I criticize because I care!"
> ... KDE is a fantastic system, and I want to see it be the best it can.
>
> Many thanks for listening.
>
> -M. David
> --
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