[Geany] revisiting default keyboard shortcuts: a proposed solution

[John Gabriele]

On 9/4/07, Nick Treleaven <nick.treleaven at btinternet.com> wrote:
> On 09/04/2007 12:57:45 AM, John Gabriele wrote:
> > [...]
> > Geany is a powerful GUI programmer's editor. As such, we should be
> > taking advantage of the key bindings available. This means using
> > Ctrl-Alt ... as well as Shift-Alt.
> >
> I agree. I think you summed up everything well, thanks John.

:)

> > [...]
> > Now, Geany is also using Alt keys to deal with gui elements
> > (including
> > the Alt-1 and Alt-0 combos), and the Shift key to deal with selecting
> > text (holding it down while navigating). I propose then, that
> > Shift-Alt be specifically used for commands that either have to do
> > with the GUI, or else with selecting text. That is, continue to use
> > Shift-Alt-{W,L,P} to select word, line, and paragraph, and add to
> > this
> > list:
> >
> > * Shift-Alt-J to vertically center ("jump") the window view on the
> > current line (was Shift-Ctrl-L)
>
> Or maybe Shift-Alt-V for View current line?

Yeah, that sounds good too. Either way.

> > * Shift-Alt-{Up,Down} to scroll the window up- and down-by-line.
> >
> I think we can use Alt-{Up,Down} for this. We can use both Alt-[^a-z]
> and Alt-Shift-{x} for GUI-related commands.

Oh, right you are.

> > [...]
>
> Finally then, this leaves us with the Ctrl-Alt modifier. I propose
> > this be used for how Shift-Alt has previously been used: for special,
> > possibly-less-used or advanced features. This would include:
> >
> > * Ctrl-Alt-D to insert the date
> >
> I guess that's less common, so maybe we could use that even though it
> won't work by default on Gnome.
>
> > And possibly these, having to do with changing case:
> >
> > * Ctrl-Alt-U (think "all *U*pper or lowercase") to toggle selection
> > between all upper and lowercase.
>
> Not sure about that. It might be best to use ctrl-u for toggle case,
> unless there's something better to use ctrl-u for.
>
> > * Ctrl-Alt-C ('c' for "capitalize") to make the current word start
> > with a capital letter and then move the cursor to the end of that
> > word
> > * Ctrl-Alt-L ('l' for "lowercase") to make the current word start
> > with
> > a lowercase letter and then move the cursor to the end of that word
> >
> Maybe - but can you explain what situations would you use that?

I've used these occasionally while re-writing plain text ... breaking
long sentences in two, or gluing short ones together, or just editing
something that's not capitalized correctly. It's not used all that
often, but once in a while. Emacs has similar bindings: Alt-C, Alt-L,
and Alt-U, where Alt-L makes the whole remainder of the word (noting
cursor position) lowercase, then moves the cursor to the end of the
word. Alt-U does likewise, but uppercase. Alt-C capitalizes the letter
below the cursor, even mid-word (or in front of the cursor, if on
whitespace). I haven't yet needed these commands when dealing with
code though.

I hesitate to suggest using Ctrl-U, just because changing case does
not seem like something that's needed terribly often, and also because
Ctrl-Alt-U could possibly be used along with the Ctrl-Alt-{C,L},
keeping things more consistent (that is, all key combos dealing with
case would be Ctrl-Alt keys).

Also, those Ctrl-foo keys are pretty valuable keyboard real estate. :)
I keep feeling like you're going to find something really useful and
common that you're going to want to use them for. For example, after
loading a tags file, personally, I'd expect to use Ctrl-< to go to tag
definition, and use Ctrl-> to go back to where I previously was, but
seeing as how Enrico seems to often prefer using letters, I could see
him wanting to use Ctrl-J to *j*ump to tag definition, and possibly
Ctrl-U to go back *u*p the tag stack ...

> > One last problem is possible key combo collisions with desktop
> > managers. Geany cannot possibly sidestep collisions with all
> > desktops.
>
> I think it's worth trying (in theory), especially for the most common
> desktops. E.g. we don't use Alt-F-key combos to avoid window manager
> conflicts. But it's probably OK for less common bindings.
>
> <grumble>
> It'd be nice if Gnome used the super (a.k.a 'Windows' key) for things
> like show/lock desktop, but maybe they don't want to due to portability
> reasons.
> </grumble>

Seems like the Gnome keyboard shortcuts are a bit of a hodge podge of
mostly Ctrl-Alt-foo and Alt-F_keys, with some Shift-Ctrl-Alt-keys
sprinkled in for finger calisthenics. ;)

---John