KDE4 default shortcut theme

[Jakob Petsovits]

On Saturday, 31. March 2007, Olaf Schmidt wrote:
> I agree that we need to clearly define "safe" shortcut ranges for
> applications.
>
> Unfortunately it is impossible to do this in a radically new way if we want
> our applications to work on other platforms.
>
> If we invent our own, completely independent keyboard shortcut scheme, then
> we are in effect telling users that we do not want them to use KDE
> applications if they also use GNOME, and that we don't care about KDE
> applications on Windows and MacOS.

I think that shortcut presets should be used a bit more, making this problem 
much more shallow than it seems to be now. It is not only desktop-wide 
shortcuts demanding to be consistent with other platforms, it's just as much 
concerning applications, especially the more advanced ones.
(I remember Krita wanting to do a Photoshop preset, and I guess KDevelop could 
do well with an optional Eclipse-like shortcut preset as well.)

The point is, I do not think that it's a good idea to settle on the least 
common denominator. GNOME, Windows and Mac OS all have their shortcut 
characteristics, but not adhering to all of them by default doesn't mean that 
we automatically disregard those platforms.

What I'd like to see is a solution that is similar in spirit to what Phonon 
and Solid do: Provide an interface that works well within itself, but make it 
possible to get the whole of it switched in the backend. I imagine 
KDE-specific shortcut sets to be the "standard", the fallback preset, if 
you're either running a KDE desktop or you're running a foreign platform and 
no platform-specific shortcut sets have been written yet.

Like translations, don't try to translate to every single language on earth by 
yourself, but make it possible for native speakers to translate your strings.
We don't have to make all the Linux-based application developers worry about 
Windows and Mac OS, just tell the Windows users and the Mac fanboys to create 
their "native" set of shortcuts if the default one doesn't fit into their 
environment.

It is my opinion that trying to find _one_ solution that works equally well on 
all platforms makes all of them mediocre in the end. Just take a look at 
Windows to see how Microsoft can't even drop the silliest features because 
they need to accomodate everyone. Let's not drift off in this direction.
If we want to have something great, we can't just come down to the least 
common denominator.

It's not important to get the same shortcuts by default when you switch to
(or from) the KDE desktop. I switched from Windows once, but it's something 
you do once in years. Sacrificing consistency within the desktop for 
consistency made for one-time switching is not the best idea ever, imho.

And yeah, we can also do GNOME bindings, er, shortcut presets.
Or rather, let the people create them who work within a GNOME environment.
And if that's not a good idea, then let's get together with the Gnomies and 
define one single standard for all of X11, with them dropping the bad stuff 
just as much as we're supposed to do. But for heaven's sake, don't take 
platforms into account that will never run on one system at the same time.

Cheers,
  Jakob