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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: The Ctrl-A controversy
From:       Magnus Ihse <d95-mih () nada ! kth ! se>
Date:       1999-12-17 13:27:20
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On Fri, 17 Dec 1999, Torsten Rahn wrote:

> >  * Familiarity 
> > 
> > Familiarity is another key point in good usability design. (This is
> > sometimes, a bit unfortunately, referred to as intuitive.) That the
> > users are aware of the importance of familiarity is clearly shown by
> > the heated argument about Ctrl-A, which in my analysis is basically
> > an argument about your background and what you find familiar. :-)

[long story cut except the important sentence]

> others were quite disappointed: 'Why did you change everything to 
> the american way of life here? I really liked the small differences

Tourists may like the small differences. Users does not. This is the
key point I was trying to make. Things should work as you expect them
to work. Ever seen those white board markers where it looks like the
cap is in one end an when you try to pull it off you realize it's in
the other end, and how frustrating that can be? The same applies to
computers. 

Since you seem to be fond of fariy telling, I'll go on and tell you
about an experience I had yesterday. A friend of mine rented a van,
since he was moving (and I was to help him carry a few things). Even
though it was a couple of metres longer, about a metre wider and
almost a metre higher than the car he normally drives - and although
the engine used diesel instead of petrol - he had no problem driving
it. You know why? Because the user interface abstracted away all the
gory details. And because the car industry has standardized around a
certain solution to the "car UI problem". And I've never heard anyone
complaining to this. Instead, I _have_ heard complaints about cars
that do not follow the norm. Nobody thinks it's expecially exciting
to have to relearn how to use these different cars.

Besides, I don't really think you do want what you seem to be arguing
for: that KDE should just be different. If that was the main point,
why not use Alt-R as "beginning of line" and Ctrl-Shift-Delete as
"select all"? I'd like to see you arguing for that! (Or rather, I'd
*not* - heavens forbid :)) Instead, I think you are arguing for
_keeping_ Ctrl-A as "beginning of line" since you are _familiar_ with
that behavior from your Unix experience. If that is so, I completely
understand your position.

However, since you and all the Windows/Mac-knowledgable users have
different experience of what Ctrl-A does, you can't obviously satisfy
both of you. My suggestion is therefore:

1) Make shortcuts configurable (that means making it the
resonsibility of KDE and not individual applications of handling
shortcuts to certain standardized operations like "beginning of line"
or "select all")

2) If that is not technically possible (which I think it should be;
difficult perhaps, but not impossible), then the Mac/Windows standard
should have precedence before the Unix standard, just in terms of
numbers of users. "The needs of the many" you know...

> > Next week I'll talk more about how Apple has gotten almost all the
> > advantages of the MDI interface while still sticking to a SDI
> > interface. :) (Readers of this list that is familiar with the Mac can
> 
> hey hey I expect to hear a jingle when I hear sentences like this 
> one. Where is this jingle -- I'm really used to it from TV ...
> Oh this sux if you can't present at least a little melody now ;^)

I was quite serious. Have you ever looked at how a Mac handles
applications and windows? And I also was serious about intending to
write a long mail about what's good about Mac's solution, what's bad
and what KDE can learn (and perhaps copy) from it. However, I think
I'll let the initial storm about Ctrl-A settle first. :)

/Magnus

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