build 8.2-760, Read activity and ebook mode - how to make them work together?

[Eben Eliason]

On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 6:45 AM, NoiseEHC <NoiseEHC at freemail.hu> wrote:
> Probably it would be the right time for 9.1 to finally make Sugar usable
> from the keyboard?

We've started, slowly.  GTK focus is unfriendly to us, particularly
with respect to our slightly unconventional use of GTK widgets (for
instance, packing text entries inside toolbars was never considered a
valid use case for the toolkit when it was created).  Combine that
with the fact that GTK is inconsistent as to when tab vs. arrow keys
can change control focus, and you've got a nightmare.  We know we need
to do something, but I fear it's a long hard road and not just another
little task we need to pick up and run with.

> For example I did not see any activities using accelerators (Ctrl+Key or
> Alt+Key) or at least they are not showing it on the UI.

They should be in the latest builds!  I identified a bug a little
while back which caused the accelerators NOT to be displayed, even
when they were set, and that bug has been fixed.  At the very least,
you should see them for the keep and save buttons in the activity
toolbar, if not elsewhere. (The accelerator appears in next to the
label in the palette, on hover.) We do, of course, need to use 9.1 to
make sure that ALL reasonable shortcuts are defined and highlighted,
if missing now.

> This problem that cursor keys are lost is widespread. In some activities
> I can press the down button several times until the focus moves from the
> toolbar to the scrollable area but on other activities it stays on the
> toolbar, so I have to open the XO from ebook mode, click and close back.
> It is just lame.

Agreed.

> Here is a "design document":
> How about that when the user keeps the Alt or Ctrl keys down, the XO
> shows him big hints about the available shortcut keys? It could show
> those shortcuts for the active toolbar page's buttons as well. That way
> beginner users (and people who were cursed by very bad memory like me)
> could use it as F1. (In fact it is similar how default XP shows

That's an interesting idea.  We have thought about ways to expose the
key mappings in handheld mode, which really has yet to be "designed".
A number of activities mostly work at the moment, but the consistent
UI around them to make the mode solid hasn't been done yet.  Hopefully
I'll have the chance to post some design ideas for that soon.

Another possible option, for general use, which we've discussed in the
past is a palette dedicated to keyboard mappings, revealing a user
configurable set of actions.  This would make it possible to see all
of the shortcuts for an activity in one consistent place, and even
allow the user to adjust them on the fly to suit their tastes (which
might be good, if the mnemonics, for instance, are designed for
another language.)  This, of course, requires an API so that
activities can expose lists of available "functions", and then make
use of the new mappings throughout their activity.

- Eben


> accelerators only when Alt is pressed.) It is possible that this design
> is too similar to M$ ribbon controls but I think that being too similar
> is not a shame.
>
> Gary C Martin wrote:
>> On 18 Sep 2008, at 06:55, rihoward1 at gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I have not seen any documentation on how to navigate in Read in
>>> ebook mode.
>>> I tried the various game pad buttons but have not had much success
>>> in navigating.
>>> I would like to be able to scroll from page to page in ebook mode,
>>> back and forth.
>>> Have the the buttons been implemented for ebook mode? If so any
>>> hints out there on how to make this work?
>>>
>>
>> Testing Read-51 on an XO, the directional arrows pad scroll a pdf
>> about in steps (if you are zoomed in enough to have somewhere to
>> scroll to) – these buttons rotate to match the screen rotation (a nice
>> touch). The four other separate game buttons are, circle to page-up,
>> cross to page-down, square to zoom-in, tick to zoom-out.
>>
>> However... you must first put focus on the document (clicking on the
>> page, or hitting tab a couple of times will do it). Hmmm, maybe this
>> is worth a trac ticket as it's going to catch folks out.
>>
>> It's worth noting focus behaviour changes have happened in a bunch of
>> places (Journal being the obvious one), where navigation keys (cursor,
>> page up/down) will go to unintended*** toolbar buttons unless you
>> manually change focus to the scrollable area.
>>
>> ***for example I just accidentally set a pdf I have to share with my
>> neighboorhood while re-checking the game pad buttons. And as we all
>> know, for some bizarre reason you can never**** un-share an activity...
>>
>> ****actually there is UI a cheat/hack. Copy the offending activity to
>> the clipboard using Journal, then use the clipboard to keep it in the
>> Journal again. The new copy will be private, and you can just delete
>> the other.
>>
>> --Gary
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>>
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