What next?

[John Thacker]

On Sat, Jun 04, 2005 at 07:22:14PM +0200, Enrico Scholz wrote:
> thacker at math.cornell.edu (John Thacker) writes:
> 
> > Having 'Q' for some programs and 'CTRL-Q' for others would be annoying,
> > as this thread has shown.
> 
> I do not think so. People distinguished between :wq, C-x C-c, q and C-q
> for several decades, so why should viewers -- which are used mainly by
> one-key bindings -- need suddenly two keystrokes for shutdown?

Hmm.  I seem to recall that when vi(m) is run as a viewer, with view,
it still requires :wq to shutdown.  I don't think it would be a good
idea to have vi, when executed as view or in read-only mode, suddenly
switch keybindings and quit with one keystrokes.  It's confusing to 
be inconsistent.  And what applies to vi as one application applies
to GNOME as a platform.

Yes, people did distinguish.  I distinguished between :wq, used by a program
I used, and C-x C-c, used by a program I never used.  Part of the reason
that I (and other people I know) don't use emacs is because I don't want
to bother to learn a whole other set of keyboard shortcuts.  Similarly,
I know plenty of average users that use only emacs and never vi(m) for
the same reasons, as well as pico/nano users who want the same keyboard
shortcuts that they've had in pine for many years who avoid emacs and
vi.

Having lots of different keyboard shortcuts that differ across programs
is annoying for users, especially casual users.  Since GNOME stresses
usability, it encourages common keyboard shortcuts.  For several decades
plenty of people avoided UNIX-based systems because it was "hard to use,"
and learning esoteric keyboard commands for vi and a host of other 
esoteric keyboard commands for emacs is one commonly-pointed to example
of it being hard to use, in my experience.

John Thacker
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