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Internet Message Format | 1994-08-27 | 11.2 KB

Date: Sat, 2 Jul 94 00:35 CDT From: ekl@sdf.lonestar.org (Evan K. Langlois) To: gem-list@world.std.com Subject: A Revised (slightly) Proposal Precedence: bulk In addition to keyboard short-cuts we need standardized panels (dialogs), standard menu positions, and other such guidelines, like how a block should be selected, how to select discontinous blocks, application data linkage (no GEM app currently supports this I believe), and what happens when you type and a block already exists. The only way to satify everyone is to make a standard that allows user configuration. The NeXT guide specifies that short-cuts can be changed. I submit the following based on 3 standards, in order - Atari Compendium, NeXT Guidelines (an extension of apple), and finally this list. You do NOT have to implement everything in here, and the guideline also specfifies how to NOT use the guideline! Also, the APP_DEFS.SYS file mentioned here and options such as the block=big-cursor and other weirdness, or country-specific options and such should be supplied in here. The user should be able to configure everything globally and should be be able to configure each app separately if he/she so desires. We also need to discuss mouse pointers and cursor types, and it is possible that these would be in the APP_DEFS.SYS too! Function Keys are app-dependant, normally used for macros or execution of external programs. Possible are normal, shift, control, alt, shift/control, shift/alt, but NOT any combination of with alt and control at once. =========================================================================== The following is based on the NeXTStep User Interface Guidelines 3.2 Chapter 3: User Actions: The Keyboard and Mouse. It assumes that user preferences are stored in the APP_DEFS.SYS file which is searched for in the following directories, in order, "U:\etc", "C:\multitos", "C:\mint", "C:\system", "C:\", and finally the current working directory. "A:" should be substituted for "C:" if the user booted from floppy. Also, the current working directory will be searched even if the file is already found in another directory and these settings will over-ride settings previously found. Choosing Keyboard Alternatives Initially, until the user specifies a different preference, applications should follow the guidelines for keyboard alternatives described in this section. Users can use the Preferences application to alter the keyboard alternatives for every application at once. You're also encouraged to let the user choose and change keyboard alternatives using your application's Preferences panel. Some sort of "Preferences" application should be generated by the gem-list. To change the global preferences, run the app, and to change the preferences of a specific application, pass that application's name on the command line. This can be run from another GEM application, concurrently if your AES allows it to provide a consistent interface for editing the APP-DEFS.SYS file. A global usage "Install" application could also set paths and options in this file as well as copy the files to the proper destination, make directories, install icons in the desktop RSC file, and also de-install all these options and icons and delete the proper files when needed. By allowing the user to change keys globally he can conform best to the application/standards that he uses most, so if he want to have ^U close a window the user can change it himself (although he will have to find a new key for underline!) Code will also be provided (possibly a whole library) for parsing the file and for utilizing the information contained within. The guidelines place keyboard alternatives into three groups--reserved, required, and recommended. These groups are listed in the tables that fol- low along with the commands they perform and the menus where the commands are located. Note that "Command" is normally CONTROL, since ATARI has reserved some ALT combinations and others are used to generate special keys. Terminal programs should over-ride global settings in an application specific line so that ALT is used as the Command key for that app. Shift is the up-arrow (ascii 1) In menus, the caret "^" denotes CONTROL and the window closer should be used for ALT, and an equivalence character (ascii 240) in a boxchar object should be used for drop-down lists. The use of the word "panel" refers to a a standardized dialog which the gem-list should provide code and RSCs for. The right arrow shows a cascading menu, the delete character (the delta) is for the iconify/miniturize gadget and buttons that show >> expand the dialog while << shortens a dialog (for advanced and novice user options). Any function below is assumed to work on upon the currently selected object, and if no object is selected, it is global. So HIDE, is hide the currently selected object, or hide the application. Show Info gives information about the object, or about the application. Reserved Keyboard Alternatives Reserved keyboard alternatives must be used for the commands that follow, and cannot be used for any others. If your application implements the functionality that a command represents, it must provide both the command and the keyboard alternative. For example, if your application opens files, it must have an Open command with Command-o as the keyboard alternative. If your application doesn't allow the user to open files, it won't have an Open command and must not use Command-o as a keyboard alternative. Keyboard Command Menu ------------------------------------------------------ HELP Access Help Help shift HELP Context-senstive Help Help ALT HELP Screen Dump <<no menu>> UNDO Undo last command Edit ^UNDO Redo last command Edit shift ^UNDO Multi-level UNDO Edit ^A Select All Edit shift ^A De-select All Edit ^C Copy Edit ^H Hide File shift ^H Un_Hide Edit ^N New File ^O Open File ^P Print File ^Q Quit File ^S Save File ^V Paste Edit ^W Close File shift ^W Abandon + Reload File ^X Cut Edit TAB Cycle Object Selection <<no menu>> TAB type-writer style tab <<no menu>> ^TAB Cycle Windows Window ALT TAB Cycle Apps <<reserved in MultiTOS>> ^ ALT \ Emergeny Kill App! <<reserved in MiNT/MultiTOS>> ^ ALT C Abort Now! <<reserved in MiNT/MultiTOS>> The following are editing keys, for both text apps, and maybe dialogs : ^ BKSP Delete word to left <<none>> ^ DEL Delete word to right <<none>> ^ ARROW Move left/right one word <<none>> ^ CLRHOME Move to start of doc. <<none>> shift ^DEL Delete to end of line <<none>> shift ^BS Delete from beg of line <<none>> shift LEFT Move to begin. of line <<none>> shift RIGHT Move to end of line <<none>> shift UP Move up one page <<none>> shift DOWN Move down one page <<none>> shift DEL Delete line <<none>> shift CLRHOME Move to end of document <none>> ARROW Move one char left/right <<none>> CLRHOME Move to top of window <<none>> BKSP Delete to left of cursor <<none>> shift BKSP same as normal backspace ... DEL Delete right of cursor <<none>> INSERT Toggle insert/overwrite <<none>> << Hide Application has the same effect as recieving a WM_ALLICONIFY message. Hide Object hides the currently selected object by removing it from the screen. Unhide will unhide all hidden objects.>> Required Keyboard Alternatives These keyboard alternatives must be used if the application implements the command. For example, if your application has a Find panel, you must pro- vide ^F as a way of bringing the panel up. However, if an application doesn't implement the particular functionality of an item (if it doesn't have a Find panel, for example), it can use the keyboard alternative (^F) for something else. Nevertheless, to pre- serve interapplication consistency, it's strongly recommended that you first try to use characters that don't overlap with those on this list. Keyboard Command Menu ------------------------------------------------------ ^ = Define in Dictionary Text ^ ; Check Spelling Text ^B Bold (Unbold) Style ^D Find Previous Edit ^E Enter Selection Edit ^F Find Panel Edit ^G Find Next Edit ^I Italic (Unitalic) Style ^T Font Panel Style ^U Underline (un-underline) Style shift ^C Append to Clipboard Edit shift ^I Show Info File shift ^V Insert File Edit shift ^K Colors Style shift ^F Find & Replace Edit << note find next and find previous are also replace next and replace previous if you used find & replace instead of find. >> Recommended Keyboard Alternatives These keyboard alternatives must be used for a command if the command has a keyboard alternative. If not, the key can be used for some other command. For example, if the Copy Ruler command has no keyboard alternative, Com- mand-1 can be used as a keyboard alternative for another command. Keyboard Command Menu ------------------------------------------------------ ^1 Copy Ruler Text ^2 Paste Ruler Text ^3 Copy Font Style ^4 Paste Font Style ^J Jump to Selection Edit ^L Redraw Screen Window ^M Miniturize window Window ^R Show Ruler Text shift ^B Set New Block-Start Edit shift ^E Set New Block-End Edit shift ^P Page Layout File shift ^S Save As File shift ^L Paste and Link Link <<note if redraw screen is supported, just turn on and off your menu with the menu bar command and then call form_dial for the whole screen and the AES will send all the proper redraw messages >> <<note Set New Block functions support multiple blocks if the programmer so desires by not deselecting the old block. To set a new block in this case, just use deselect all >> In Dialog Boxes --------------- Return - OK, Yes, etc... Undo - Cancel, Abort, etc... Other buttons should be available via ALT+<x> as in Let 'em Fly. Editable text fields should follow the standard as above.