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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: modifier-only shortcuts
From:       Chusslove Illich <caslav.ilic () gmx ! net>
Date:       2006-07-07 3:29:12
Message-ID: 200607070529.12907.caslav.ilic () gmx ! net
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> [: Thomas Zander :]
> It might not be a good idea to play on an assumption that the points 
> raised are based on 'armchair whatever'. Things like that can backfire
> as soon as you learn that these points come from people that actually
> have professional experience in the usability field :-)

Sorry if it sounded harsh (though, more likely stupid :) It is not that I 
believe it's all armchair thinking, on the contrary. But things can slip 
in unusual cases, such as this one:

As soon as I saw comments, I thought "these guys never had a need for 
heavy-duty layout-switching", and reacted. Looking closer now, I see that 
people listed on KDE usability team are all 
Western-European/North-American. Is it too much to extrapolate that their 
field experience also includes WE/NA test users?

On the other hand, our Kxkb is maintained by Andriy Rusin, Gnome's switcher 
and XKeyboardConfig by Sergey Udaltsov, and xkb module itself by Ivan 
Pascal -- it's safe bet to say there is a lot of Vodka in keyboard layout 
waters (a pun planned some time back :)

The point being clear, I hope.

> Calm down; nobody is saying the problem is not real, or should be
> ignored. Just that this one solution proposed here is in need of
> refinement.

Ok, calmed. Let's see:

Windows default is Alt+Shift.
Gnome default is Alt+Alt.
MacOSX default is Command+Space.

Now some genuinely armchair observations:

Alt+Shift is quite disruptive, must move whole left hand
Alt+Alt is better, only left and right thumb involved
Command+Space is even better, again both thumbs, but less precision needed

-- 
Chusslove Illich (Часлав Илић)

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