Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!dptg!att!cbnewsk!ech
From: ech@cbnewsk.ATT.COM (ned.horvath)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Time for standard cmd-keys & menu c
Message-ID: <1095@cbnewsk.ATT.COM>
Date: 28 Sep 89 15:07:49 GMT
References: <11386@fluke.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 24

From article <11386@fluke.COM>, by mce@tc.fluke.COM (Brian McElhinney):

> A real improvement would be a Command Key Manager.  Let each program register
> which menu entries correspond to standard types (open, close, new, cut, paste,
> plain, bold, etc), and have the manager select the command key the *user*
> wants (selected via the control panel).
 
I've gone on record here on this issue before: follow the guidelines where
they make sense for your application.  Follow convention (e.g. cmd-W
for close) where they make sense for you app.  Innovate where THAT makes
sense for your app.

If Apple management are satisfied with the guidelines, perhaps it's
because the users themselves exert a greater pressure on developers
to conform than Apple can.  It certainly works that way with products
I've shipped, and that is as it should be.

Finally, there are several products available (Tempo, QuicKeys, even
MacroMaker) that permit you, or any user, to easily assign whatever keys
you want to whatever actions you want.  Quick, easy, cheap, reliable, and
supports the original, and ultimate, guideline:
	Empower the user!

=Ned Horvath=