Scott Raney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> responded regarding the answer dialog
creating the same mnemonic for different options as follows:
>Guess this is a case we hadn't considered. I'll bug report it.
>
>> Since MetaCard doesn't resolve the conflict when two options start
>> with the same letter, I suppose I need to change my terminology, say
>> replace "Complete" with "Total".
>
>I can think of two other ways to deal with this situation, both of
>which involve enhancing the scripts in the answer dialog (and, yes,
>you can do this yourself). The first would be to have it accept
>embedded mnmonic tags like menus do (i.e., the character after a & is
>the mnemonic, and the & gets stripped out). The advantage is that the
>developer has precise control over the mnemmonic. The disadvantage is
>loss of backward compatibility and maybe a bit of surprise for the new
>developer who tries to put an & in one of the choices (you'd have to
>put && in where you want a single & to appear).
>
>The other option is to add a little AI where the script would detect
>conflicts like this and do a search for appropriate alternatives. No
>loss of backward compatibility, but the choices the script makes might
>not be the same ones the developer would make.
>
>Any preferences? And if anyone decides to do this, by all means send
>us the script. It's unlikely we'll get to this one before 2.4 is
>released.
> Regards,
> Scott
I have a system extension on my Mac that takes the second approach in
creating command-key-plus-letter-key keyboard equivalents for Mac OS dialog
boxes. It inserts a red underline under one of the letters of the
descriptor on each button to indicate what letter is to be used. It does
this not only for the "standard" dialogs such as "Print" and "Save" but
also for the highly specialized ones such as those unique to PageMaker.
It seems to work well, usually taking the first letter. One AI feature is
that it appears to always set up "Cancel" as Command-A even if there would
be no conflict with using "C".
This second approach would be slick, but would be more work for Scott's
crew to develop and assure that it doesn't create more problems than it
solves. The first (ampersand) approach would be easier to implement, would
create fewer if any new problems, and would give MetaCard application
developers the ultimate control.
Also, there is the question in my mind of how important this matter really
is. Do people use keystroke mnemonics enough to warrant the effort to
finetune this feature? (I know that even though I have beaucoup keystroke
options on my Mac with my system extension, I rarely use them.)
In case it is of interest to anyone, the system extension is called
QuickTools Dialog Power!, copyrighted by Advanced Software, Inc. in 1992.
In spite of its age, it still works with my vintage 1997 version 8.0 Mac
OS. (Do you get the idea that I wait until others have worked out the bugs
before moving on to the next version of the software I use. :-) )
John Kiltinen
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