keyboard............ (1 Viewer)

[gds]

corl: whenever I talk about interface issues I'm keeping in mind the principles of CHI (computer-human interface) design, which is now known by the friendlier name of "usability" (there are several good books on this new "science" if you're interested in knowing more).
One of this rules is: the software should always act in a consistent way, both internal and external (meaning by internal consistency that the program always behaves the same in all of its interface and by external consistency that the program behaves the way users have come to expect from the use of the operating system and most common other applications).
One example of a famous SW house not respecting this principle is Microsoft in its Office products: if you click the upper left "X" in Word you close only the selected window, while if you do it in Excel you close all the open windows...
Sorry if I bored you
GDS

 

[MadAxeMan]

So ArE yOu SaYiNg MoSt SoFtWaRe Is CaSe InSeNsItIvE?

 

[gds]

@MadAxeMan:

I agree that keyboard input should be case insensitive, since it can lead to errors which normal users (who, finally, are the intended audience for mp) may find difficult to track down. Just think if you had to explain to all of your friends that you convinced to try mp why keyboard input stops working apparently for no reason...
And, by the way, while Unixes (like Linux, BSD, etc) are case sensitive, DOS is not, so the user, even when told mp works this way, will find it counter-intuitive.
GDS

That's what I mean. I don't mind if MythTV is case-sensitive, since it's built on Linux and Linux users are used to a case sensitive data input, while DOS and Windows ones are not. If I type "DIR", "dir", "DiR", "diR", etc in a DOS prompt window I'll always get the same effect. So, yes, I think user input in menu driven interfaces should be case-insensitive.
Geez, it's amazing how boring I can be :roll: :wink:

 

[MadAxeMan]

Not at all, I think it's interesting (sad eh?).

I wouldn't class DOS as a GUI. Windows GUI application shortcuts support the form:

esc
F5
shift-F5
q
ctrl-q
ctrl-shift-q (ctrl-Q)

etc etc

So surely to be consistent a Windows GUI application such as a PVR app should also support case sensitive shortcuts, and even key-modified ones as well.

 

[gds]

Nice point. OK then, let's put it this way: in Windows Shift is a modifier which is sometimes used to alter the behaviour of the text input, as you pointed out. E.g. if I push Alt-Tab I scroll the open windows list from left to right, while with Shift-Alt-Tab I scroll it from right to left. So my question is: is there really a need for Shift-modified text input in MP? If so, to be consistent with Windows behaviour, I'd think that if "keypressXYZ" does something, Shift-"keypressXYZ" does something analogue but in someway reverted from its Shift-less counterpart. If this need does really exist, then Shift-modifier will be a welcome addition. If not, I cannot understand why some actions are accomplished by lowercase input and some others by uppercase input.

 

[MadAxeMan]

I think grouping modified key actions is certainly a positive step. For example "s" to select next aspect ratio and "shift-s" for previous (this would save cycling all the way through to get back to the previous format) although it would also assume prior knowledge of sequence.

This need not always be the case where such an action is non-sensical, for example where a key is used as a toggle. Many windows applications also display non analogous modifiers for menu shortcut keys. For example as I type this in Firefox, ctrl-i will toggle my bookmarks pane whereas ctrl-shift-i will bring up the DOM Inspector.

 

[gds]

Now I definitely agree with you. One last thought: as always, for consistency sake, I'd like to have some changes in the default keypress actions, e.g. Alt-Enter to toggle fullscreen. I hope the developers are watching this topic...

 

[MadAxeMan]

Alt-enter does toggle fullscreen for the app, where as x does for the media inside the app (at least it does for me...).

 

[gds]

Ops... you're right again...
it's starting to become embarassing...