[Geany] tuning Geany key combos

[Nick Treleaven]

On 06/28/2007 08:40:16 PM, John Gabriele wrote:
> On 6/28/07, Nick Treleaven <nick.treleaven at btinternet.com> wrote:
>> On 06/26/2007 07:03:48 PM, John Gabriele wrote:
>> > On 6/26/07, Enrico Tröger <enrico.troeger at uvena.de> wrote:
>> >> On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:43:27 -0400, "John Gabriele"
>> >> <jmg3000 at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> >> > > >    * Tab, Shift-Tab --> use Ctrl-9 & Ctrl-0 to  
>> indent/de-indent
>> >> > > >      by one space, and Ctrl-) & Ctrl-( to indent/de-indent  
>> by
>> >> > > >      one tab width.
>> >> > >
>> 
>> I like this, but maybe it should be the other way around - on most
>> layouts ctrl-number is easier for common tab width indenting, and
>> holding shift for the less common case makes sense (for me anyway).
>> 
> 
> Guess it depends on which philosophy you want Geany to go with:
> 
> A. Most common usage without the Shift key
> B. Less common requires Shift
> 
> or
> 
> A. Basic feature without Shift
> B. Extended with Shift
> 
Well, personally because we're limited by keys if we want to have  
universal keybindings I don't mind having both of the above. But it is  
harder to hold shift as well so I'd tend to go with the first one.

> But just a moment...
> 
> After fiddling with key combos a bit, I'm starting to see things
> Enrico's way. Not only are the Alt keys used for activating menus, but
> they're also used extensively to control GUI dialog elements. If a
> given dialog is not modal, there could be confusion (ex. "will Alt-P
> find previous, or will it select paragraph?"). It's actually possibly

Well I'm not sure about you're example, but the answer IMO is it  
depends what's focussed. We've made some of the keybindings only active  
when the editor window has focus, but there may be more that need this  
check.

> * when a Ctrl-key combo has an obvious opposite, add Shift to it to
> get that opposite.
> * When it doesn't have an obvious opposite, use Shift-Ctrl-key to get
> some kind of extended behaviour.
> * Use Shift-Alt-key for other specialized functions. If these
> functions have an opposite, you'll just have to work to find a
> Shift-Alt-another_key to provide that function (or else just use a
> menu item to get it).
> 
This seems OK in general, but personally I don't mind exceptions to the  
rule, so long as there's a reason for it. E.g. for indenting (see my  
other mail).

> Applying this to Geany's current key bindings, F3/Shift-F3 is good.
> Shift-Alt-D even makes sense this way. :)
> 
> The inconsistent keys now become:
> 
> * undo, redo: Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-Y. Maybe should be Ctrl-Z, Shift-Ctrl-Z?

Well, I prefer it. I don't like holding shift for things that get  
pressed a lot, and I use undo/redo quite a lot. I realise some people  
might say the same for find previous, but I think there are more  
alternatives in that situation - e.g. find all/find usage. Undo/redo is  
important to be able to do easily because it can be stressful finding  
the right point without losing code.

> * toggle line comment: Ctrl-B. Maybe should be Ctrl-B to comment,
> Shift-Ctrl-B to uncomment? (That way it would be similar to how Ctrl-G
> works.)
> * toggle marker: Ctrl-M. Maybe Ctrl-M to mark, Shift-Ctrl-M to unmark.
> 
No, I think toggling is fine in that case. Also if we do end up using  
the '//~' trick from scite, toggling works there as well.

> And this opens up those Shift-Alt-keys for ones such as:
> 
> * Shift-Alt-W to select current word
> * Shift-Alt-L to select current line
> * Shift-Alt-P to select current paragraph
> 
Seems OK ;-)

Regards,
Nick