On 8 Jan 2009, at 16:41, Abigail wrote:
[...]
It used to be that ^W closed the current window, if the focus wasn't
on a text input field or if the URL bar had the focus. In such a case,
^W would erase the word before the cursor. Just like 'readline'.
This is no longer the case. ^W always kills a window.
Even several years later, I still have the urge to use ^W to clear the
URL bar - often to see firefox disappear (if there's just one window).
That's not so much Firefox hate, but a Windows hate due to it using
the Ctrl key as the accelerator. On this fruity machine, Apple-W kills
tabs, and Ctrl-W backspaces a word.
One would have thought, what with Microsoft inventing a new PC
keyboard layout for Windows 95 that included Windows and Menu keys,
that it might use *those* for accelerators. But no... the key's sole
purpose appears to be to randomly cause one's window to lose focus, or
game to freeze, when it's accidentally brushed.
Not that Windows is alone in this, mind. There's also the eject key
hiding on the top-left of some Mac keyboards which cannot be disabled
and works even when the screen is locked. Not infrequently have I
discovered the CD drive open and vulnerable to snappage when some berk
- often me - has dropped a load of paper onto the edge of my keyboard.
No doubt Linux desktops also have this sort of useful feature, but
those are so hateful that I ran away screaming when I last saw a full
Ubuntu (mis)install and have no real experience with them.
