< Rant > Menus are the first line of recourse for the novice. And who are the Labs meant for, if not novices?
The Macintosh Human Factors Guidelines used to warn against key/modifier chords which correspond to no menu item. Loose "shortcuts" are a Windows abuse and diagnostic of an app developed with little or no concession to novices. Ctrl in Windows is (usually) the counterpart of Cmnd (⌘) on the Mac. But nowadays Mac keyboards offer a Ctrl key also, as a concession to ex-Windows customers (...growing) -- particularly users of M$Word, which has been re-ported to the Mac with little or no understanding of novice needs. There's no good reason for a novice ever to buy M$Word: the kludge is aimed at an existing audience. Which is, they'd arrogantly maintain: everybody (...who matters). Hence the need to offer a Ctrl key. But on the Mac: Ctrl+J to advance a Lab is Ctrl+J in JGTK not ⌘J ...it appears to be the sole exception to the "rule" Ctrl+ --> ⌘ . I'd have pointed this out before but I don't know if anyone's listening. (How many Mac users are there on this list? Four?) </ Rant > On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 9:04 AM, chris burke <[email protected]> wrote: > I think it should be enough to say: > > "To advance the lab, press Esc A in JHS, or Ctrl-J in Gtk." > > I updated the lab script for this. > > On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 3:41 PM, Ric Sherlock <[email protected]> wrote: >> This should now read: >> To advance the lab, if you are using the JHS front end, select menu >> Studio|Advance Lab or the corresponding shortcut (Esc,a), otherwise if you >> are using the Gtk front end then select the menu Help|Studio|Advance Lab or >> the corresponding shortcut (Ctrl+j). >> (Note the Gtk menu item doesn't exist yet but probably should). >> >> Seems harder than it needs to be to me! >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Ajith Prasad <[email protected]> >> Sent: Monday, 21 February 2011 17:08 >> To: '[email protected]' <[email protected]> >> Subject: [Jgeneral] Shortcut for advancing the Lab menus? >> >> Lab: A Taste of J (1) >> To advance the lab, select menu Studio|Advance or the >> corresponding shortcut. >> >> ********************************** >> >> As "Studio|Advance" does not appear on the j701gtk menu, what would the >> shortcut be? Thanks. >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
