> In the Inkscape project we're constantly butting up against the problem > where there simply aren't enough modifiers for everything we'd like to > implement. This means for most of our tools there is a constant battle > to figure out how we can fit everything into Alt, Ctrl and Shift. We > manage. But, many window managers are using alt click to drag windows > which takes 1/3 of our options away.
AFAIK, you are not the only one; seems that blender uses alt+mouse for it's own options too (presumably there are a lot of other apps with the same needs). Altought I'm not an artist, occasionaly usage of these tools gives me feeling that everybody likes alt+mouse combination :) But... As example, edewm wm didn't come, for a long time, with these bindings by default (just because of these problems), and people started to complain about 'non-standard' behaviour. Looks like chicken-egg problem; on other hand, like Raster said, wm simply have advantage in this field. > - Somewhere there is a spec that allows a window manager hint to be set > by applications to say "I'd really like Alt, please!!!" And this would mess things a lot. Let say end user expecting alt+mouse behaviour from wm (like window moving), and after that app starts, I simply wanishes, giving priority to application. For most of them this will look like a bug, if not properly documented that X and Y apps modify wm's alt key. Or what if that app crashes or forget to send hint "Ok, I'm done, revert that alt key" ? > My personal favorite here is "2" -- I think that the Meta key could be > turned into the "desktop" key where other desktop actions could be > assigned to it also. And this will be very hard to change now; older wm's and current ones already heavily use alt, not to say that a lot of people expecting the same from wm. > No, the reason that I was suggesting that a WM use meta is because in > general, I think the desktop knows a lot more about the hardware that > it's working with. Not quite true; desktop might see just plugged in keyboard but have no advantage over app (except ordering wm to steal buttons or whatever). Things (in case of desktop) complicates even more; there are expeced keys for taskbar, etc. etc. > Some sources say that SpaceBar+Alt is the correct combination for Meta. > IIRC, Meta behaves a little differently: it is always persistent -- > stays on till you press the next key or Esc to cancel it. Uh, things with Meta key are not better either :). Sun keyboards come with true key, some apps emulates it via Alt, some via Win key... Best, -- Sanel _______________________________________________ xdg mailing list [email protected] http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg
