Ctrl-Alt-Backspace change [was Re: Announcing Fedora 11 Alpha (blink)]

[cornel panceac]

2009/2/7 Christopher Beland <beland at alum.mit.edu>

> A long Xorg thread which discusses this starts here:
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg/2008-September/038786.html
>
> This points to a number of case studies, collected at:
> http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10510
> [copied below]
>
> Apparently this combination is easier to hit accidentally than you might
> think, due to similar keyboard shortcuts in various applications.
>
> This bug includes a proposal that a different, less dangerous key
> combination be chosen, but apparently the default was simply changed to
> disable zapping entirely.
>
> -B.
>
> == Feature request ==
>
> Xorg should have a config file option to make it harder to kill it than a
> mere
> Ctrl+Alt+Backspace.  Perhaps Control+Z+A+P all at the same time would be a
> better key combination.  Yes, that's those four keys held down at once.
>
> Or perhaps Control+Alt+Z, then Control+Alt+A, then Control+Alt+P.
>
> Or maybe you could instead use the key combo Control+Alt+Backspace pressed
> three times.  The first and second time you press it, the PC speaker would
> emit
> a beep and the keyboard Caps/Num/Scroll Lock LED would blink a few times
> and X
> would attempt to show a warning dialog on the screen.  The third time you
> pressed it, X would die.
>
> Although it seems few distributors use DontZap by default, perhaps they
> would
> use this new option if it were implemented.  Or maybe you yourself could
> enable
> it by default.
>
> == Example evidence ==
>
> "We routinely use backspace to kill a character, C-backspace to kill a
> word,
> C-x backspace to kill a sentence, etc. And inevitably, we press
> C-M-backspace
> trying to kill an s-expression, just to find ourselves wondering why the
> screen
> suddenly turns black for a moment before the login screen appears again.
> Yup,
> we zapped the X server, because that is what C-M-backspace does."
> --http://www.foldr.org/~michaelw/log/programming/lisp/dontzap-emacs<http://www.foldr.org/%7Emichaelw/log/programming/lisp/dontzap-emacs>(Emacs's C
> and Java modes use the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace key combination to delete the
> {}-enclosed structural block to the left of the cursor.)
>
> "How can I configure X not to shutdown when I accidentally press
> control-alt-backspace?  This happens a lot, believe it or not, while I'm
> using
> emacs.  If X were to pop up a confirmation dialog, that
> would be even better." --
> http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=38992
>
> "In the terminal programs I use, alt-backspace erases the word to the left
> of
> the cursor.  This is very handy, but when my thumb slips just a small
> amount it
> also presses the ctrl key..." --
> http://www.lugod.org/mailinglists/archives/vox-tech/2005-09/msg00046.html
>
> "A word to Alt+Backspace and Shift+Alt+Backspace: I have noticed the danger
> of
> shutting down X-Windows when you accidentally hit Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
> instead of
> one of the two other keystrokes. So, this might be arguable that users
> might
> accidentally mistype a keystroke thus losing some work (as I did :-))" --
> http://bugs.kde.org/63540
>
> With sticky keys: "I crashed my system accidentally - I wanted
> Ctrl-Backspace,
> and got
> Ctrl-Alt-Backspace!
> Perhaps sticky keys should not stick the combinations:
> Ctrl-Alt-[Del|Backspace|Esc]" --
>
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg-bugzilla-noise/2004-September/003354.html
>

i believe those combinations (wich looks like emacs to me) are used by fewer
people and they are not regular users (wich is supposed to be most of the
users) so it may be better that they disable c-a-bs combo instead requiring
most to enable it.


>
> For more examples see:
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=accidentally+hit+%7C+press+%7C+hitting+%7C+pressing+control+%7C+ctrl+alt+backspace+x%7Cxorg
>
> --
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-- 
Linux counter #213090
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