From: barham@qut.edu.au
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: A Style Guide Question
Date: 23 Nov 92 11:40:32 EST
Organization: Queensland University of Technology

To:           "Tim Barham" <CBE2/TIM>
From:         "Tim Barham" <CBE2/TIM>
Date:         23 Nov 92 11:25:24 GMT+1000
Subject:      Re: 
X-mailer:     Pegasus Mail v2.3 (R4).

dan@cs.pitt.edu (Dan Drake) writes:

[reformatted for my mailer which hates long lines!]

> This is a style guide question.
>
> To be consistent in my user interface, I am using buttons called done
> and cancel, that reside in all of my windows.  I want the user to
> be able to activate these buttons through their keyboard
> equivalents: eg d for done, and c for cancel.  Now on several of
> these windows, I want the user to type text into a beveled box
> which I handle manually.  THe problem is that if the user wants to
> type a d or a c, there is some ambiguity concerning what should
> happen.  Will the buttons be activated, or should the characters
> appear in the "textbox"?

Obviously the characters should appear in the text box otherwise the
person would never be able to enter those characters.

> I have 2 solutions, and would be interested in any other solutions
> or recommendations.

I think something that no-one has mentioned here is that you say these
are bevelled boxes that you handle manually.  Are these multiline
boxes in which pressing the Enter key would take you to a new line
and thus not de-activate the text box?  If yes, then this is a
problem!

> 1. If a text box is active, the user must click on the buttons to
>    activate them.  I consider this unacceptable because it ruins
>    the orthogonality of the interface.  You can't have some things
>    work in one window, and not in others.

Normally, this would be the case, with the enter key deactivating the
text box so you could then use the keyboard short-cut key (as per the
style guide).  If the enter key just takes you to a new line (as I
mentioned above), then we have a problem.  How are the Amigas two
return keys labelled?  Enter and return?  I can't remember, it's at
home.  If so, the return key could take you to the next line and the
Enter key deactivate the text box (ie Enter normally means "accept
the text" and return is short for carriage return, or a new line on a
type writer).  Not very elegant I agree.

> 2. Use (ALT|CTRL|right amiga) key to activate the buttons in all
>    cases.  Alt doesn't work because European languages use it.
>    Control is awkward for left handed people to use like me. (I
>    like to keep one hand on the mouse, and one on the keyboard),
>    Right Amiga is somewhat awkward too.

ALT and CTRL aren't good for reasons mentioned here and elsewhere.
Right Amiga isn't good because of conflicts with menu selections.
What is the left amiga key used for (apart from pop-cli programmes) -
I know - a new standard - the left Amiga key is used as a modifier
key to select gadget shortcuts when you are in an active string
gadget!  I'm a genius!

> 3. Don't use keyboard equivalents.  I really don't like this option.

Pah - we need our keyboard shortcuts!

> Like I said, any help would be appreciated.
>
> dan.

Has any of that been of any use? In another post I give my (totally
authorative) opinion on what should happen with normal string
gadgets.  "Multiline string gadgets" add a new problem to the
equation, though - perhaps that's why Commodore didn't provide them
as part of GadTools (the WHIMPS!)?


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| Tim Barham     | If it's green or it wriggles, its biology.        |
| App Programmer | If it stinks, it's chemistry                      |
| CBE Section    | If it doesn't work, it's physics                  |
| QUT            | If it's crippling your machine, it must be MS DOS |
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-- 

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| t.barham@qut.edu.au (Tim Barham) - "Dances with Mice"              |
| Applications Programmer for the Computer Based Education Section,  |
| Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Qld, Australia      |
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| "You're so open-minded that your brain leaked out..."              |
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer