Re: Unable to use File Open Panel
Tor Arntsen wrote:
On Mar 25, 20:46, Charles G Waldman wrote:
>I disagree. One of the nice things about Emacs, IMO, is consistency -
>I can always select text for copying by holding down the left mouse
>button and wiping the mouse across a region of text. Even if the text
>is in the *Info* buffer. And this is a good thing. It's nice that I
>can easily copy text out of the Info buffer if I want to, say, mail it
>to someone. Or similarly for W3 - you can copy and paste out of web
>pages using normal XEmacs mouse bindings; you can, unlike Netscape,
>select a hyperlink to copy as text without jumping to it.
[...]
FWIW, I agree with Charles in this.
If you put a new user directly into W3 there could be some confusion in
that mouse-1 doesn't "work", however there's no confusion if the user
comes from *XEmacs* -- you know that when something gets highlighted
by moving the mouse cursor over it it means you can press the middle
button to select it.
A new user will learn this quickly, although there could maybe be some
trouble if the user kept switching between Netscape and W3 all the time.
I don't think that's a big problem and in any case it's a small price to
pay for a consistent XEmacs interface.
IMHO, of course.
- Tor
I disagree. While I agree that we should always work for consistency,
you have to meet users expectations to some degree. And I think the
current paradigm of mouse button functionality within XEmacs as a whole
is inconsistent with just about any other application or OS you will run
across.
I use XEmacs exclusively as a code text editor. I expect the middle
mouse button to paste the current selection, nothing else. As a text
editor, that works as expected. Outside of the text editor, such in W3
mode or the file selection dialog box, the middle button does not paste,
it activates or selects. Inconsistent (I obviously have never used
XEmacs as a browser).
In the case of file selection, if I did not already know how to select a
file from the dialog, I would try things in this order:
- Left click
- Left double click
- Right click, hope for a menu with "Open" as one of the options
- Ask someone who already knows how
- Try anything that comes to mind until something works.
Middle clicking wouldn't cross my mind until the last of these options.
So, IMHO, I think the whole XEmacs mouse paradigm is what is
inconsistent because it is so dissimilar from the conventions expected
by new users. But because long-time XEmacs users are familiar with the
current setup, changing it probably isn't a good option.
What if left double click had the same functionality as middle click?
You wouldn't lose text selection capabilities, and new users would find
their way more quickly. Supply that synonymous behavior everywhere and
you don't lose consistency. I am not at all familiar with XEmacs
internals to know how feasible or desirable that solution would be, but
at first glance it looks like a big improvement over the current
situation.
Thanks,
Darryl