"A Word of Caution" to all newcomers

Doug Way dway at mailcan.com
Thu Dec 2 23:09:04 UTC 2004


On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 21:49:26 +0100, "Andreas Raab" <andreas.raab at gmx.de>
said:
> 
> This is why I referred you SmalltalkImage>>setPlatformPreferences. If you 
> browse the senders of that method you will find that it is triggered if 
> another preference (automaticPlatformSettings - covering whether we want to 
> set some prefs automatically depending on the platform) is enabled. By 
> default, automaticPlatformSettings is on, and thus this code is called and 
> thus all it takes is to change that code to [duplicate|swap] the keys when 
> we're running on Windows.

Ah, groovy, I didn't know about that pref.  I don't think that existed
yet the last time we hashed out the Windows copy/paste key binding
issues on this list a couple of years ago.

Now that that's there, I'd vote for going ahead and turn on that
swap/duplicate pref just for Windows platforms.  (The other option
discussed in the earlier discussion was setting something in the Windows
VM, but I think this simple platform settings thing in the image is much
nicer.)

Of course, now the question is, should the swapControlAndAltKeys or the
duplicateControlAndAltKeys be the one turned on for Windows?  (Remember,
these both only affect the magic 8 text-editing keys: A, S, F, G, Z, X,
C, V.)  Since it's now just for Windows, I would vote for
swapControlAndAltKeys.  Otherwise, you completely lose the other 8 key
bindings, such as the old ctrl-V which prints your initials/timestamp. 
Not that I ever use these, but some old-timers might get grumpy if they
were taken away. ;)

So, my order of preference for the default settings would be:

1. Turn on swapControlAndAltKeys just for Windows platform.
2. Turn on duplicateControlAndAltKeys for Windows.
3. Turn on duplicateControlAndAltKeys for all platforms.  (I have no
strong preference between #2 and #3.)
4. Keep things as they are now.

Option #4 is unacceptable, IMHO.  Jim Gettys is correct that by
definition, only a relative Squeak expert would be using Squeak across
multiple platforms and would expect the same key-binding behavior on all
platforms, regardless of OS conventions.  The defaults should be geared
toward beginners, not experts.

- Doug



More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list