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- Date: Thu, 2 Jun 94 11:59 BST-1
- From: Andre Willey <andre@cix.compulink.co.uk>
- Subject: SHORTCUT.INF file proposal
- To: gem-list@world.std.com
- Message-Id: <memo.271344@cix.compulink.co.uk>
- Precedence: bulk
-
-
- To try to avoid a lot of messages saying much the same thing, and as several
- people have said (here and privately) that they like the general idea of
- having a master shortcuts file which can be configured by the user, I
- thought I'd add a few thoughts which have occured in the meantime. Please
- keep replies *short and to the point*, and digest multiple responses where
- possible.
-
- I proposed that the general format would be:
-
- 0 ^Q ; Quit
- ^ ^ ^
- | | Comment text (not parsed; any language)
- | |
- | Keypress (user editable, maybe via a special utility?)
- |
- Code number, unique to a given operation (e.g. 0 for Quit, 1 for Close
- Window, etc.)
-
-
- Areas which need discussing are as follows:
-
- * What happens if a user-requested shortcut clashes with a program's
- default setting for some 'specialised' command for which we don't
- have a shortcut code defined? e.g. the user has requested ^M as
- 'move block', but the application already has ^M defined for its
- special mode for 'waving a mauve flag in a window'. Yes, I know it's
- a silly example, but how should an application handle such a conflict?
- Here are some suggestions for (brief!) discussion:
-
- Ignore the user-requested shortcut (maybe displaying a message to
- say what it has done?)
-
- Ignore its own internal shortcut (again, displaying a messsage?)
-
- Prompt the user about the clash, and ask them to enter a new shortcut
- for one or other command. This replacement code could maybe be saved
- back to the shortcuts file, to avoid seeing the message every time
- you run the program. This is simple enough for the user code, but
- what about the internal program code, which has no defined code-number?
- Maybe allow (in these rare cases only) a program to add an entry to
- the shortcuts file in the following format:
-
- PROGNAME.PRG: 123 s^M ; Wave mauve flag
- ^ ^ ^ ^
- Application | Key Comment
- Name |
- |
- Internal code (defined by application programmer)
-
- This would only ever be parsed by that program. Is this getting a
- bit convoluted, though?
-
-
- * Naming conventions for shortcuts. We need to use a common form for the
- naming of special keys, to allow simple parsing of the file. (Internal
- scan codes are to be avoided due to keyboard differences). This may
- still pose language problems, though. I suggest:
-
- Tab, Spce, Caps, Ret, Entr, Del, Bksp, Esc, Help, Undo, Ins,
- Clr (or Home?), f1-f10 (not F1-F10, to avoid confusion with 'F' key)
-
- The numeric keypad should be shown as [1], [2], [-], etc. What about
- Enter - should this just be 'Entr', as above, or [Ent] ?
-
- I was going to suggest the cursor keys be defined as Up, Dn, Lt and Rt,
- but that may be too language-specific. How about putting the ASCII arrow
- symbols inside square brackets (otherwise a lone up-arrow or left-arrow
- would be confused with Shift or submenu).
-
- Modifiers: ASCII 7 for Alt, ^ for Control, ASCII 1 (uparrow) for Shift
- (all historical)
-
-
- * Menu options. There are going to be shortcuts that don't fit into
- menus. This can't be avoided (e.g. some user sets up Shift-Control-Alt-
- Undo, or somesuch). I suggest that an application puts shortcuts into
- the menu *where it has space to do so* - but if it can't for any reason,
- just flag the menu option as having some shortcut which won't fit (for
- the sake of argument, use a single character like ASCII 247 or 240. 175
- would be nice, but might be too easily confused with an arrow for a
- submenu). If possible, suggest that an application allow space for
- 6-character shortcuts in its menus (only a guideline; some applications
- won't be able to do this)
-
- Andre
-
- +------------------------------------+-------------------------------+
- | Andre Willey | Cygnus Software Development |
- | Email: andre@cix.compulink.co.uk | Sutton Coldfield -- England |
- | or: ...{mcsun}!uknet!cix!andre | Tel: (UK/+44) 021 308 5251 |
- +------------------------------------+-------------------------------+
-