KDE4 default shortcut theme

[Andreas Pakulat]

On 29.03.07 11:07:13, Ellen Reitmayr wrote:
> Olaf and me went through the KDE system shortcuts and suggest a few changes 
> for the KDE4 default shortcuts. For one, we would like to add some 
> alternative keyboard combination for a higher consistency with other systems, 
> for the other we'd like to introduce several new shortcuts which are required 
> for full keyboard access (accessibility). The latter requires changes in the 
> libs.

In general I have to say that many global shortcuts are a PITA for apps
like Quanta or KDevelop where shortcuts for many things are needed. The
amount of working (i.e. easy to reach) shortcuts is limited and thus
special care should be taken for the global ones as these override _any_
app-specific shortcuts.

> Suggested new keyboard shortcuts (for 3 modifier keys):
> 
> * Focus to previous widget, including widgets on toolbars and in dockers: 
> Shift-Tab

This one is used in KDevelop for de-indentation and I don't see the
use-case for jumping around in the app's mainwindow. Also this would
(AFAIK) need extra support from the application, it needs to keep a list
of "previous" widgets which to jump to. Or does KWin cover that?

> * Focus to menu: F10

We already have Alt+<first letter of menu item> to jump there, so I
don't see why we need to waste a precious F-Key (those are meant to be
used for the Debugger in KDevelop, to be compatible with other IDE's)

> * Show context menu of this pane (not focused widget): Ctrl-F10

What does this mean? Lets say I have kate open and the editor is
focused. Then pressing Ctrl-F10 should open the editor-context-menu,
right? Or how is "this pane" different from focused widget?

> * Go to next main component (e.g. a pane, a docker or a toolbar): Alt-F6
> * Go to previous main component: Alt-Shift-F6

Same thing as with Shift-Tab, there's no tab-order defined here and thus
we'd need to introduce a way of defining the "next" and "previous"
component.

> * Focus switch between panel and desktop: Ctrl-Alt-Tab (should show list of 
> components -> much like Alt-Tab to directly jump to a widget in the panel)

I don't know about Qt4 but in Qt3 QTabWidget occupies this shortcut for
switching between tabs.

> * Resize split pane: F8 (currently only implemented in KWord)

Is there special code that makes this possible in KWord or is it just
the lack of a proper QAction in other apps with split windows that those
don't have that shortcut? If the first is the case I don't think this
should be a global shortcut, its just one application that has this
feature. 

> As changes in the default keyboard shortcuts we suggest
> 
> * Switch to next desktop: Ctrl-Alt-Right (Ctrl-Tab is needed to get focus out 
> of text fields)
> * Switch to previous desktop: Ctrl-Alt-Left 
> * Window menu: additional shortcut Alt-space

Nothing against those.

> * Switch to next tab: Ctrl-, (all types of tabs)
> * Switch to previous tab: Ctrl-. (all types of tabs)

There was a discussion about tabswitching shortcuts quite some time ago
and IIRC they should be unified. Although I find something with arrow
keys personally better than ./, .

> * Undo: additionally Ctrl-Shift-Z
> * Add Bookmark: additionally Ctrl-D

Uhm, I guess these are for being compatible with other DE's? In that
case I opject, if somebody wants to have the same shortcuts as in
another DE, he should use a proper DE-compatbile shortcut theme. Please
don't start to add additional shortcuts for compatibility reasons, we
have themes for such things.

> * Focus to next major panel (voluntary): F6

I guess this is active only if the panel has focus? Else this doesn't
make too much sense, IMHO.

> We also found shortcuts in the Windows and Mac scheme which differ from the 
> actual Win+Mac system shortcuts. We'd like to fix them once the new shortcuts 
> are implemented.

I don't care about those schemes :)

BTW, while you're on it: Please remove the stupid Ctrl+F<num> global
shortcuts that switch to that desktop directly. Or at least everything
above 4. KDE3 comes with 4 desktops by default (IIRC) so there's really
no reason to have shortcuts for more. And for switching between four
desktops the next/prev desktop shortcut should be enough too in the
default setting. If somebody needs to switch directly he can adjust the
setting.

Andreas

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