#4646 HIGH Update.: Systemwide keyboard shortcuts break terminal apps (e.g. nano)

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#4646: Systemwide keyboard shortcuts break terminal apps (e.g. nano)
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  Reporter:  bemasc            |       Owner:  Eben                             
      Type:  defect            |      Status:  new                              
  Priority:  high              |   Milestone:  Update.1                         
 Component:  interface-design  |     Version:  Development build as of this date
Resolution:                    |    Keywords:                                   
  Verified:  0                 |  
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Comment(by bemasc):

 Replying to [comment:3 Eben]:
 > CTRL is also our primary modifier key, and therefore the one that should
 be doing things like save (keep), quit (stop), copy, paste, open (resume),
 etc.

 Save should be a rare event.  You should only save if you are
 checkpointing because you are about to do something that you may want to
 revert.  Otherwise, you can just close.  There is no need for a save
 shortcut.

 Quit (which triggers a silent save) should be a single keypress, Esc.  No
 chording necessary.
 Open is already done by the spyglass key.  If context-aware filtering is
 desired, this key should implement that.

 >  These are all functions that every activity should support, and should
 obviously be consistent across them.

 Most activities will not support Open, since resume is initiated in the
 Journal.
 Some activities will have no state, so keep does not make sense.
 Copy-paste only makes sense for certain activities.

 > I think that terminal apps are a special case here

 Certainly.

 > As far as Terminal goes, I'd argue that we should map the controls as
 usual when directly within the shell, but ignore them when there is a
 process (such as nano) in the foreground, allowing the controls to
 function within the process until exited.

 Nope.  Bash binds many of the Ctrl-* shortcuts, and some of the Alt-*
 shortcuts, to its own features.  See http://gentoo-
 wiki.com/TIP_Terminal_Keyboard_Shortcuts for a few of them.  All standard-
 keyboard shortcuts must be disabled in Terminal, all the time.

 > What do others think about this?
 A dangerous question.

 > I'm not the authority on this, and I'm spoiled by OSX in which command
 provides ubiquitous and consistent shortcuts and ctrl is "leftover" for
 use in the Terminal and other such circumstances.

 You should feel equally spoiled on an XO.  For example, nobody has done
 anything with the lefthand-righthand keys, which are clearly modeled on
 Apple's special keys (like openapple/closeapple on the Apple II,
 option/command on Macs, etc.).  Those would be a decent choice for non-
 interfering modifiers.

 > Perhaps this does in fact need to be policy, but I ''strongly'' dislike
 the idea of having some basics such as "keep" and "stop" be anything but
 completely standard across all activities.

 I agree that consistency is extremely valuable.  However, I also see
 chorded shortcut combos as an indication of failure, both in software
 design and keyboard design.  Computers are supposed to alleviate
 repetitive tasks.  A keyboard shortcut indicates that the user is being
 required to manually execute some simple task on a frequent basis, and
 there isn't a key for it.  Sugar has removed many of these tasks, and the
 keyboard neatly exposes most of the rest.

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Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/4646#comment:4>
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