unity-design team mailing list archive

[Neil Broadley <scaine@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't have an answer for this, but I hate the idea that F3 and F4 would
minimise and close without some kind of CTRL/ALT/Super modifier.

Can't think of anything more confusing for a user who's trying to rename
their file, hit the wrong key and have the window completely vanish -
either because it's minimised or closed.  Similarly, someone wants to go
full-screen, hits F12 by accident and boom! It looks like they've turned
their laptop/PC off. I can hear the howls of anguish already.

I hit F1 by accident when renaming far too often already - I'd rather not
have any more such grief in my life.

A thorough revamp of shortcuts is probably in order (I have to turn off
screen overlay in Unity because it pops up when I use the zoom plug-in with
Super-mousewheel up/down), but adding more arbitrary function key mappings
doesn't sounds like a great idea to me.

Neil.


On 15 March 2012 11:09, Petko <pditchev@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>  Since the desktop list seems dead ,and similar discussions are held here
> , I'll forward a thread I posted there :
>
> -------- Original Message --------  Subject: Shortcut keys F1,F2,F3,F4
> and overall  Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:42:14 +0200  From: Petko
> <pditchev@xxxxxxxxx> <pditchev@xxxxxxxxx>  To:
> ubuntu-desktop@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Hey guys , I recently came to the conclusion that the *Function* keys
> ,that are most accessible aren't really utilized . Some (a lot of) time
> ago , when I was new to computers I saw them as some kind of unusable
> appendix . Since then not much has changed (regarding OS defaults ) .
> Which of the function keys do you use ( out of combinations , just the
> straight up most efficient press of the key) ? I used three until recently :
> F2 - rename
> F5 - refresh
> F11 - fullscreen
> (and maaybe F1 - help)
>
> Here's the idea : the first 4 func. keys are very accessible , not used
> in writing , and 2 of them have no function what so ever by themselves .
> Here's a couple of suggestions from me :
>
> F1 - clearly stays help
> F2 - users have learned it's rename , so it should stay rename (though
> that's probably not the best function it can have)
> F3 - Minimize window - everybody does it constantly , the buttons for
> minimize are little , I personally hate compound shortcuts
> (alt+ctrl+shift+asdf to minimize (meaning I don't want to touch more
> than one button for one of the most used actions) )
> F4 - how has no one made F4 default for closing windows just boggles my
> mind  - why twist your hand to press alt , when F4 can't possibly have a
> better use .
>
> I'm with those settings now and it's much better than the defaults . For
> F4 - of course alt+F4 should continue working alongside F4 , because
> anyone new would get confused , but that doesn't mean it shouldn't get
> implemented .
>
>  Second point of discussion (the "and overall" part of the thread) : I
> need some response from developers: If I create a wiki page in Ubuntu
> dedicated to discussing default settings (because I think there's much
> room for improvement) , would its contents be taken into account . The
> idea is that a whiteboard is needed to discuss this topic (there's too
> many details for a mailing list in my opinion) , and I'm convinced that
> the topic should have a centralized resource (so there's no repeated
> discussions , and people can pick up where others left off ) .
>
> And overall - any feedback would be appreciated , I really want to push
> the development in that area a bit (default shortcuts/settings) .
>
> Petko
>
> PS: not a proposal for implementation , but a hint for whoever might
> like it : F12 for "xset dpms force off" (turn screen off)
>
>
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