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List: kde-usability
Subject: Automatic completion mode
From: Rafael =?utf-8?q?Fern=C3=A1ndez_L=C3=B3pez?= <ereslibre () kde ! org>
Date: 2008-11-16 15:15:47
Message-ID: 200811161615.50058.ereslibre () kde ! org
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Hi all,
We have been discussing on kde-core-devel this issue, but it would be great to
have some usability input to get a nice decision.
- The problem
When a lineedit has been set with "automatic completion mode" when the user
writes for instance "kons" it gets suggested "konsole". From this point I will
refer to this as "kons#ole". Because the left chunk of word before the '#' was
written by the user while the 'ole' on its right has been suggested by the
completion mode (and this latter part is gray). (look at completion.png
attachment).
The screenshot is about krunner, but this is applicable to a higher number of
apps and use cases.
As you might now what happens is that it "saves" previously entered commands.
What is the problem ? Let's see:
= Story 1 =
Joe really loves autocompletion feature, it is really useful, however he found
a not very nice problem. He wrote manually:
websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdelibs/kdeui/widgets and pressed enter in krunner.
After that, he wanted to open another URL, child of the one he just opened, so
he manually writes:
websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdelibs
Before he presses enter he notices that on the lineedit there is shown:
websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdelibs#/kdeui/widgets (as shown on completion2.png),
but he doesn't worry, because he can see that it is a suggestion. After all,
he wanted to get to the URL he wrote.
For his own surprise, websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdelibs/kdeui/widgets is opened
when he presses enter. He wonders why, since he wrote a certain URL, and he
wanted to get to _that_ URL.
Anyway, he still loves autocompletion mode because he will get "kon#sole" and
will be able to press enter and open his favourite terminal emulator, konsole,
so he doesn't want to turn it off, he wishes developers would fix this
annoyance instead.
= Story 2 =
Ann can type really fast. She always prefers to give paths to the applications
she runs because is faster than opening the open/save dialog. Her friends
usually say she has 11 fingers, but that is out of matter atm. Now, she opened
krunner for the first time and was amazed how nice it was. She typed something
like:
kwrite ~/listofinvitations.txt
and she started to edit her next birthday party friend invitation list. She
was done, and she left her session opened. Her brother came and sit on the
computer, he was surfing the internet and got some information of his interest
that he wanted to save. He fired krunner and wrote:
kwrite
Well, he could see "kwrite# ~/listofinvitations.txt" but anyway, he wanted to
_fastly_ fire up kwrite to paste that important information for him. For his
surprise when he pressed enter he was reading the list of people his sister
was going to invite to her birthday, and for even being worse, was that stupid
guy what wanted to go out with his sister.
= Story N =
I think I can invent like N stories where N is a random positive number less
than infinite.
- The solution
I don't think changing the completion mode is the best and smartest thing we
can do here. People usually _love_ automatic completion mode, but with some
small details improved it would be even better.
My suggestions for this being fixed:
- You wrote "kons" and you get "kons#ole". If you press the right arrow, you
get "konsole" (nothing in gray) as if you were 'accepted' the suggestion. This
isn't that critical, since anyway you were going to press enter, and your hand
already moved from the main part of the keyboard. We actually use this when we
are editing text on KWrite/Kate/Emacs/XEmacs/Vim/place here your favourite
editor. Nobody has been known to be dead for this matter.
- You can accept the suggestion and the dialog itself by pressing shift +
enter. In this case if you have "kons#ole" and press shift + enter, you get
"konsole" running.
- You can accent the dialog and reject the suggestion by pressing a direct
enter. In this case if you have
"websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdelibs#/kdeui/widgets" you visit
"websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdelibs".
- You can go back into what you write, making the suggestion being
reconsidered. This means: I have "kon#sole". If I backspace what I can get is
"ko#oka", since this match is closer.
So for suming up:
- You always have something like "foo#bar" (with bar in gray, or as a
suggestion, depending on the current color scheme of the system). In general,
if you dont 'accept' the suggestion, you go for 'foo'. Accepting the
suggestion (this means, pressing right arrow, or shift+enter) would make you
go for 'foobar'.
Ideas ? Opinions ? Suggestions ?
Regards,
Rafael Fernández López.
["completion.png" (image/png)]
["completion2.png" (image/png)]
["signature.asc" (application/pgp-signature)]
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