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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Keyboard modifiers etc
From:       "Claes at work" <claesatwork () gmail ! com>
Date:       2007-01-13 22:07:48
Message-ID: 495c267b0701131407t726d7754w415084a5bedb63cb () mail ! gmail ! com
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Hello,

it is not uncommon for keyboard shortcuts to conflict with each other.
One well-known example is Control-C which means both copy to clipboard
(in gui-apps) and interrupt (when parsed by the shell). In Konsole
this is a real problem and makes it harder to work with copy and paste
in a general way.

Max OS X has a Command key that is separate from the Control key. In
console applications there it is therefore much easier to work with
both "paradigms" - there is no conflict between the two traditions.

This is just one example of a more general problem.

The Mozilla project has a good workaround for this I think. They
internally work with a modifier they call "accel". Basically "accel"
is an alias that is implemented by different modifier keys on
different platforms. On Windows and Unix, "accel" is Control, while on
Mac it is Command. A good writeup is
http://www.mozilla.org/access/keyboard/#codersummary . Note where it
says "accel" used to be Alt on Unix platforms, to avoid conflicts with
traditional usage of Control, but that KDE and Gnome influenced them
to change it to Control.

I think it would be good if KDE would follow this pattern as well.
Perhaps KDE 4 can introduce the "accel" alias internally.  It would
make KDE applications better prepared for integration with platforms
such as OS X, but it would also make it possible for individual users
to change what key should implement "accel".

Claes
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