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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Kicker keyboard navigation (was Re: Kicker keyboard navigation patch and kicker keyboard focus probl
From:       Hamish Rodda <meddie () yoyo ! cc ! monash ! edu ! au>
Date:       2002-01-04 11:36:08
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On Friday, 4th January 2002, John Firebaugh wrote:
>> I have implemented keyboard navigation of the kicker menu <snip>
>
>I think this definitely should go in now. Keyboard navigation in the KMenu is 
>one of the most frequently requested features for Kicker.

Agreed.

>> The navigation works as follows. The first item from the top with the
>> matching first letter is selected. If it is the only match on the menu, it
>> is executed; otherwise, further presses of the same key cycle between
>> matching entries.
>
> I would rather see the following algorithm: the letters typed are buffered
> and used to perfom an incremental search. There is a short timeout value
> after which the buffer is cleared and typing again begins a new incremental 
> search. This is the form of keyboard navigation used in the Konqueror file
> views; it is familiar, easy to use, and efficient.

John and I had a chat on IRC about the method used here. We agreed to first 
use the algorithm below ("autocomplete"), and if there was no match, the 
algorithm above ("key cycling", the same as MS' start menu) would be used. 
John wasn't keen on having this behaviour configurable (to prevent 
over-configurability), though it would present no difficulty.

I implemented this, and found that having two behaviours running 
simultaneously is somewhat less than optimal, so it really has to be one, the 
other, or a config item (which would work well with kpersonaliser).

There doesn't seem to be anything about which style is preferred in the style 
guide; konqueror uses the autocomplete method, as do many of *nix apps in 
general. 

I wanted to give everyone the chance to comment on what they would prefer 
(autocomplete, key cycling, or configurable), or to find out what the KDE 
standard is if there is one... so, comment away...

>> There is one problem at the moment. The menu currently loses keyboard focus
>> after the first keypress
>
> This appears to have been fixed.

Thanks go to Matthias Ettrich for fixing this one :)  I searched for ages and 
wasn't even close.

Cheers,

Hamish
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