Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!mce
From: mce@tc.fluke.COM (Brian McElhinney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Time for standard cmd-keys & menu c
Message-ID: <11386@fluke.COM>
Date: 27 Sep 89 20:24:38 GMT
References: <15720@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <227700045@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> <2062@ethz.UUCP> <253@dbase.UUCP>
Sender: news@tc.fluke.COM
Organization: Software of the Mist
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In article <253@dbase.UUCP> awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas) writes:
>Making the leap from "standards are good" to "if you only look at
>the programs I like, there is a de facto standard" to "let's institutionalize
>the de facto standard" is dangerous.  The proponents of this approach on
>the net so far seem heedless of the danger.

Dangerous?  The lack of a standards for command keys has led to a
proliferation of incompatible usages, resulting in user confusion.  That's a
bad thing, as the Human Interface Guidelines recognize.  Standards for open,
print, and close are no more dangerous than for cut, copy and paste.

I've heard that the Human Interface Guidelines have stagnated for much the
same reasons as you give.  Upper management at Apple are simply happy with the
Way Things Are (aka, stagnation).  The proliferation of INITs, etc, that alter
and expand the Human Interface show how wrong this attitude is.

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).
 
 
Brian McElhinney
mce@tc.fluke.com