From kde-usability  Mon Aug 11 22:15:25 2003
From: Leo Savernik <l.savernik () aon ! at>
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 22:15:25 +0000
To: kde-usability
Subject: Re: Context menu debate
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-usability&m=106063989901484

Am Montag, 11. August 2003 16:13 schrieben Sie:
> I'm passing this over from KFM.
>
> I was not aware of the context menu discussion going on, so I'll jump in
> with this. Basically I think that 'cut' is a kde-wide universal function
> that needs to be in the context menu for completeness and usability. If the
> consensus is the reduce the size of the menu, please remove the konqueror
> navigational elements, but include the general kde stuff. It makes for a
> jarring user interface when certain apps look or act differently than every
> other kde app.
>
> Let's think about making the menu efficient and clean, which not exactly
> the same as 'short'. To paraphrase Einstein, it must be as short as
> possible- and no shorter.
>
> My comments to the original post are below...
>
> >-----Original Message-----
>
> From: Leo Savernik [mailto:l.savernik@aon.at]
>
> >Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 9:15 AM
> >To: kfm-devel@kde.org
> >Subject: Re: Cut, Copy context menu in konqueror
> >
> >Am Montag, 11. August 2003 14:27 schrieb jwsacksteder@ramprecision.com:
> >> If you select text in the URL area, you can cut, copy or paste from the
> >> right-click context menu. If you do the same in the body of the page,
> >> you can only get to those functions via the toolbar cut or the pull-down
>
> menus.
>
> >> This is seriously inconvenient for me personally, as I frequently cut
> >> search terms and names out of pages so I can paste them into other web
> >> forms. I would expect it to work that way since most kde apps have that
> >> behaviour already. Is this intentional design? If not, consider this a
>
> new
>
> >> feature request.
> >
> >It's intentionally for two reasons.
> >- Not bloating the context menu even more.
> >- HTML is read only, there's no sense in having cut & paste there.
> >
> >You *could* send a proposal to kde-usability of adding Copy to the context
> >menu, but I guess it gets rejected because there's a big movement to get
> >stuff out of the context menu, not into it.
> >
> >Note that within form fields, you *have* a context menu containing cut,
>
> copy &
>
> >paste.
> >
> >Btw, how about using MMB pasting? Select the piece of text and simply hit
>
> the
>
> >middle mouse button over the target (e. g. form field) to paste it.
>
> 1. I was not aware of that, so I would argue it has poor usability. With a
> context menu, I can right click and see what operations are explicitly
> possible on that object. I think implicitly copying on selection is a
> horrible idea. Unless I read that in a faq or someone explains that to me I
> will never be aware that feature exists.

mmb pasting is very old and has existed as long as UNIX guis, and was once the 
only way to copy & paste. It uses an own clipboard, so it will never 
overwrite what you have inserted into the clipboard explicitly (by ctrl+c/x 
or by menu item).
>
> 2. I could adapt to that behavior, but it is a major inconvenience since
> that is different from all the other KDE and Windows apps I use, as well as
> Mozilla. This is the only UI wart in KDE that causes me serious aggravation
> on a daily basis. Why be different if different isn't actually any better?
> I'll use the menu 'cut' instead.

Indeed, Mozilla shows a totally different context menu when there exists 
selected text. And I also noticed that konqueror *does* include a copy item 
in the context menu sometimes (when over links), which copies the selection. 
This looks like a bug, as Copy is not link related at all (unlike Copy Link 
Address), so it should be available every time. I suggest you file a bug in 
bugs.kde.org pointing out this inconsistency.
>
> To be dogmatic, I think that at least 'copy' needs to be available by
> context menu, main menu, and keyboard shortcut _everywhere_ in KDE. 'Cut'
> and 'Paste' should be available wherever applicable.
>
> I'll carry this over to usability.

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