F11: xorg decision to disable Ctrl-Alt-Backspace

[Ben Boeckel]

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Callum Lerwick wrote:

> On Sun, 2009-03-29 at 19:26 +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote:
>> On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 01:16:10PM -0500, Callum Lerwick wrote:
>> > On Sun, 2009-03-29 at 18:01 +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote:
>> > > No. The patch was written and committed by Daniel Stone, 
who is not
>> > > an Ubuntu developer. The issue was discussed with the Fedora 
X
>> > > maintainers before it was merged. Everyone involved agreed 
that not
>> > > having a keystroke that caused immediate data loss was a 
sensible
>> > > idea.
>> > 
>> > So we're disabling ctl-alt-del too?
>> 
>> No, since working at the console isn't an interesting desktop use 
case.
>>
>> > If killing the X server is causing data loss, then there's a bug in
>> > your applications. In fact, that's an argument for ctl-alt-bs to be 
a
>> > regular part of applications testing.
>> 
>> I don't know about you, but I prefer my text editors not to save to 
disk
>> on every keystroke.
> 
> Well, I know for one Vim has crash recovery. And so does OpenOffice. 
And
> so does Evolution. This is not a new concept.
> 
>> > ... And still doesn't address the fact that the key combo could be
>> > changed to something more obscure rather than disabling it 
completely.
>> 
>> What do you suggest? I'm serious here, if there's a genuinely
>> implausible key combination then it's not going to be rejected out 
of
>> hand - but I haven't been able to come up with one, and I haven't 
seen
>> any good suggestions.
> 
> Now we're getting somewhere. First we might want to lay down 
some
> criteria:
> 
> 1) Not every keyboard is a PC-101 (or 104). We run on non-PC 
platforms
> too. Example: My Rev C iMac keyboard has left ctl alt and command 
(maps
> as the "windows key") but only command on the right side. I've run in 
to
> PC laptops that don't have all modifiers on the right either. Laptops
> typically don't have real number pads.
> 
> 2) It would be best to avoid "word" or even symbol keys, to avoid 
keymap
> problems. International users will probably appreciate this.
> 
> 3) The average person has ten fingers, ten toes and a nose.
> 
> 4) At some point you exceed the keyboard's rollover capability...
> 
> So, how about:
> 
> ctl-alt-shift-backspace
> ctl-alt-shift-backspace-tab
> ctl-alt-shift-enter-spacebar
> ctl-alt-shift-capslock-enter-backspace
> ctl-alt-lshift-rshift-backspace
> ctl-alt-lshift-rshift-backspace-tab
> ctl-alt-lshift-rshift-enter-spacebar
> ctl-alt-lshift-rshift-capslock-enter-backspace
> ctl-alt-lshift-rshift-capslock-backspace-enter-tab-spacebar
> 
> ... Do I really need to go on? Pick something. :P

Ctrl-alt-shift-backspace could still be easy with the shallow keys used 
on laptops. Both shift keys at the same time is really...odd and most 
people only use one shift key (or at least heavily favor one). Double 
shift+anything should be rare enough that accidental killing is a sign of 
an extremely obscure typing style.

- --Ben

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