unity-design team mailing list archive

["Stefanos A." <stapostol@xxxxxxxxx>]

2011/9/22 Jo-Erlend Schinstad <joerlend.schinstad@xxxxxxxxx>

> Den 22. sep. 2011 20:40, skrev Alex Launi:
>
>  Can someone explain why we think we want the ability to run rm directly
>> from unity anyway? Is there a single person who wants this functionality who
>> doesn't have a terminal open all of the time anyway?
>>
>
> rm is a bad example. But being able to restart compiz using "compiz
> --replace" without opening a terminal and running "nohup compiz --replace"
> is a good reason to keep it around. Or to quickly open a root nautilus.
> (Which itself is an example of situations when it should not be necessary to
> run a command) Stuff like that.
>
>
There's a much better solution to this: add a key to default unity to enter
command mode. Something like ~ or / or > (.) would work fine.

In other words:
1. Press unity key to show the dash.
2. Press ~ to enter command mode. Press backspace to return to normal mode.
3. Type a command, ideally with tab autocompletion

Step 2 is what unity is currently missing (i.e. a way to enter command
mode). Autocompletion is also a pretty important feature.

I'm pretty sure most dash-like launchers have a command mode (I'm pretty
sure I could do that with gnome-do). I'd actually find this more convenient
than Alt-F2, because Alt-F2 is pretty awkward to type on my laptop
(combination of tiny function keys and awkward angle). With this approach,
Alt-F2 would still enter command mode in a single step, just like now.