Kirk Bridger wrote: > Hi Lennart, Hi Kirk, > > Using a keyboard shortcut for opening the Start Menu is not a basic > operation. Perhaps it may seem rudimentary to some people, but many > people out there rarely use the Start menu at all, opting instead for > shortcuts on their desktop. If we think about accessibility too (and I think we should) is it not then a very, very basic operation?
> > The idea behind Gnome, as Alan H. has said, is to provide sane and > consistent defaults. The target audience for this is primarily people > who are not familiar with Gnome. The consistency is also aimed at > mid/advanced users as frankly it presents an easier to use interface > at any level. Consistency is good. Yes, but it can mean different things. Cross-OS consistency is good for very many users. And I believe it can be a breaking tools for minor OS:es. But of course you have to treat existing users as well as possible! I would think a switch to turn on/off MS Windows like features (see Alans message) is a great idea. BTW in the next version of Emacs there will be a switch for turning on/off CUA keys. That is for all those current and potential users that are using CUA keys outside of Emacs. A great idea and it is working very well in the next version of Emacs. (So are vi emulation mode viper. I use both this and the CUA keys.) > > So in this case I think Gnome should stick to the powerful mantra of > consistency rather than mimicry. The default should adhere to the > desktop environment standards as those are something the user will > encounter throughout their experience with Gnome. Simply making it > like Windows so transitioning is easier does not trump Gnome's current > settings. > > > I hope this explains why I would be against this as a default setting? Thanks, what you are saying makes sense to me. However I would still prefer to have it easier for new users who knows about MS Windows. How about the idea of a switch (see above) to turn on/off MS Windows like features? A distribution of for example GNU/Linux then have different possibilities: 1) Let the switch be off 2) Let the switch be on 3) Ask the user at installation 4) Put that switch in an easy-to-see-and-understand place _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
