Yves Forkl wrote:
> XXE (V. 2.11) is an excellent tool. However, I would like to have the
> following items added to the User Wish List. Each item is explained in
> more detail below so that the topics stand out clearer and are easier to
> actually integrate into the Wish List source document. :-)
>
> 1) Keyboard-only operation is very important for high productivity. Thus
> XXE should support it for each user task, especially for character
> input.
>
> 2) Enhancement of the new character tool invoked with command
> "insertSpecialChars" (favorites, choose character by codepoint,
> select character by keyboard).
>
> 3) Add a command for vertically recentering the cursor's context.
>
> 4) Explain localization results, i.e. include documentation on how
> the English GUI items mentionned in the Help and other docs map to
> the localized item names.
>
> 5) Make navigation between the HTML documentation components easier.
>
>
> Detailed explanations:
>
> Suggestions concerning XXE's implementation
> ===========================================
>
> 1) Keyboard-only operation
> --------------------------
>
> Keyboard-only operation is very important for high productivity. Thus
> XXE should support it for each user task.
>
> Currently, in the following cases, XXE does not allow keyboard-only
> operation:
>
> - Switching between the "superposed" tools like Attribute tool, Search
> tool etc. is not possible (while it is of course possible to use the
> HotKeys assigned to the corresponding menu entries, except for the
> Character tool which is not in any menu). A key combo like Ctrl-Tab
> might be adequate for this task and consistent with other tab-based
> interfaces.
The Character tool (and its alternative: command "insertSpecialChars")
are definitely mouse-oriented and therefore, are intended to be used
just from time to time.
I would rather suggest to add this snippet to your customize.xxe:
---
<!-- ================================================================
Inserts at caret position a character specified
using its entity name.
Add parameter="[DocBook]" to use the character entities defined
in the DocBook 4.2 DTD, whatever is the DTD/Schema of the document
being edited.
================================================================= -->
<binding>
<keyPressed code="ESCAPE" />
<charTyped char="C" />
<command name="insertCharByName" />
</binding>
---
* If you don't author documents for which character entities are defined
in the DTD, simply specify parameter="[DocBook]". (Just like the
Character tool, this command inserts *characters*, not *character
entities*.)
* Note that the dialog box displayed by this command fully supports
auto-completion.
* The above command is bound to Esc uppercase-c (i.e. Shift-C), not to
Esc lowercase-c. In my customize.xxe, Esc lowercase-c is bound to
command "convertCase" with parameter="capital".
* More info. about command "insertCharByName" in
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/commands/ch06s27.html
> - Navigating the document's structure using the Node Path bar ("Find
> Element| Advanced" with its XPath-based search can be used for
> similar purposes, but is not really the same thing)
I don't understand this request:
Ctrl-Up = Select Parent
Ctrl-Down = Select Child
Shift-Ctrl-Up = Select Preceding Sibling
Shift-Ctrl-Down = Select Following Sibling
Esc Down=Select All Children
Esc Left=Extend Selection to Preceding Sibling (or select element if
there is no selection to be extended yet)
Esc Right=Extend Selection to Following Sibling (or select element if
there is no selection to be extended yet)
See Help|Mouse and Key Bindings. See also
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/user/userguide4.html#id.s4
> - When an XML document consists only of an empty element with
> attributes, that element does not get selected when the document
> becomes active. So to start editing the attributes with Ctrl-E, I
> first need to select the empty element with the mouse. (The
> Selection menu's options are not available then either.)
>
> In addition, if an attribute editor has been defined using CSS
> command value-editor(), it is is not possible to use the tab key to
> move the focus into its field, instead you have to click with the
> mouse. This seems to be a side effect of the element being empty -
> only if it has content, the tab key may be used to move the cursor
> around between its content and one or more attribute value editors.
>
> Is there any way to start editing an empty root element's attributes
> using a value editor right after opening the document, using the
> keyboard only?
Not out of the box for the above case.
But it is not too difficult to add a keyboard binding (for example, use
command "xpathSearch" with a parameter specifying the root of the
document --
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/commands/ch06s73.html)
which selects the root element of the document (and after that, use Ctrl-E).
> - Entering characters from the Unicode character sets is currently
> totally impossible using the keyboard only but requires using the
> mouse: there is no menu item for character entry and the Character
> tool does not allow to select a character using the keyboard only.
> But there is some hope in the new character tool (see below).
See answer above.
> 2) New character tool invoked with command "insertSpecialChars"
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It would be great, if, using this dialog box, it was possible to
> select a character using the keyboard only. To this end, the field
> with the glyphs would have to be able to receive the focus using the
> tab key. Then it should be possible to navigate among the characters
> and select a character using e.g. the cursor keys and Enter.
>
> Selecting a character by typing its Unicode Codepoint should equally
> be offered, by making use of the character range selection field: it
> is already possible to enter the first character of the character
> range to be displayed in the glyph boxes field. If that field could
> receive the focus (see above), with its first character automatically
> receiving the focus in turn, hitting Enter would then suffice to
> insert the character into the active document.
Who can remember Unicode codepoints?
> Of course, it would be even more desirable if the new functions of the
> normal character tool (management of favorites) would also be
> available here. Especially, the "virtual" range of favorite characters
> available in the "normal" character tool should also be available
> here. If so, using a keyboard only should give access to all functions
> (management of favorites, copying to clipboard) that are offered to a
> mouse user.
Command "insertSpecialChars" is not intended to be used by authors. It
has been created for integrators wishing to design alternate GUIs for
XXE. For example, this command (and not the Character tool) is found in
the toolbar of XMLmind XML Editor Applet Edition (*V3*).
> 3) Command for vertically recentering the cursor's context
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
> There should be a command (bindable to a keystroke) that acts
> similar to Emacs' "recenter" command (not considering its redraw
> aspect), allowing to put the spot that is currently edited at some
> vertical position inside the document window (most usefully: at the
> top), without using the mouse (mouse wheel or dragging of the
> vertical scroll bar). At the moment, it can be quite annoying to
> find the cursor at the very bottom of the window, so that the
> context below is completely hidden and your neck gets stiff :-). It
> might even happen that the cursor has moved beyond the visible area
> (e.g. when an value-editor() attribute editor is shown after the
> element's content: the screen is not refreshed when the cursor moves
> down to something else than element content), making you typing
> blindly without even knowing which field you are in. What makes it
> worse is that the "old" place of the cursor shows the red bar cursor
> without blinking, so it gives the idea of the cursor just being
> stuck there, the missing blinking is hard to perceive at first sight.
>
> The usual cursor motion keys (including PageUp etc.) do a very bad
> job here: they will rarely allow you to move the line that the
> cursor is in to the top of the document window. A new command
> parametrizable by the number of lines (?) or rather pixels (plus
> perhaps some higher-level values like Top, Center, Bottom) would be
> excellent.
>
This command exists. See command "center"
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/commands/ch06s06.html
By default, this command is bound to Ctrl-Shift-L. See Help|Mouse and
Key Bindings.
> Suggestions concerning documentation and localization
> =====================================================
>
> 4) Localized interface vs. English Documentation
> ------------------------------------------------
>
> XXE's Online Help, User's Guide and Tutorial are all in English, while
> the UI is localized (if available for the desired language). Being
> able to communicate with XXE in one's own language is IMO a big
> advantage, but sometimes it is difficult to guess which localized UI
> item corresponds to which English item described in the documentation
> (or having to switch back and forth between English and local
> interface to find out the translations).
>
> This problems occurs not only when trying to learn from the
> documentation but also when communicating with other users about XXE
> issues.
>
> As long as the ideal (?) of a fully localized XXE documentation is out
> of reach, XXE's documentation should be enriched with a table showing
> the mapping of all localization names for each language. Maybe the
> output of the translatexxe utility could be processed to create a HTML
> document showing these correspondencies before delivering a localized
> version of XXE?
This is certainly feasible using the translatexxe utility, but this
seems to be a rather crude solution to the problem of lack of
translations of our documentation.
> 5) Make navigation between the HTML documentation components easier
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Currently, "Home" in one of XXE's documentation files can mean
> different things, like the document's first page (e.g. in the Online
> Help and many other documents), XXE's home page (e.g. in the User's
> Guide). IMHO, clicking on "Home" in any of these documents should
> never lead you to XXE's home page, but rather to a place which might
> act as some kind of local "XXE documentation center", e.g. index.html
> within the docs directory.
>
> Currently, getting back to where you started from is hard; having a
> common starting point like this would greatly enhance navigating
> between XXE's documentation files.
>
> The link to XXE's home page would best be found in that central
> document (where it is missing today!), telling the user where to find
> more information.
* Yes, the documentation of XXE may be improved in many ways, including
navigation consistency.
* The distribution of XXE includes all the documentation found on our
web site (unless you are a Java programmer). Simply bookmark
XXE_install_dir/doc/index.html in your navigator and you'll have a quick
and easy to access root of our documentation tree. (Windows users have a
shortcut to this index.html automatically added for us by the installer.)
* OK, we'll add a link to XXE's Home to XXE_install_dir/doc/index.html.
