unity-design team mailing list archive

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

2011/9/28 Ian Santopietro <isantop@xxxxxxxxx>

> But Alt-F1 triggers keyboard navigation of the launcher, not the dash. You
> can switch directlyfrom there to either dash or the Run dialog without any
> other action. To open the dash, briefly press and release Super, which is a
> very different shortcut from Alt-F2, and not likely to be confused. It is
> true they look identical and serve very different functions, but be cause
> they are each accessed so differently, it's unlikely that a user would open
> one when they meant to open the other.
>
You are right, please replace all my "Alt-F1" references by "Super". That's
what you get for writing without coffee in the morning.

As for it being unlikely, I'd argue that it isn't. There are many times
where I hit Super only to decide I'd rather enter a command rather than
launch an application. Right now it's impossible to mode-switch easily,
because you have to close and reopen the Dash. This fells ugly.

> And one might use "killall Thunderbird" to terminate Thunderbird if it
> freezes. It was a rhetorical example, but the point is that sometimes it is
> useful to run a command without opening a terminal, particularly if you
> would then immediately close the terminal.
>
Indeed, which is why I use the Alt-F2 prompt. What I am arguing for is a way
to access Alt-F2 functionality from the main Dash. Several ways were
presented. My favourite so far: Enter key launches application (as now);
Ctrl+Enter interprets the text as a command.

Simple and intuitive.