Intelligent CTRL+C

General discussions on potential enhancements to the APL+Win system.

Intelligent CTRL+C

Postby Ajay Askoolum » September 26th, 2010, 3:14 am

If I press CTRL+SHIFT+O when on a word on any line in the session or editor (with NOTHING highlighted/selected), the editor opens the object (on which the cursor is, existing or new) in the editor.

If I press CTRL+C when on a word on any line in the session or editor (with NOTHING highlighted/selected), the WHOLE line is copied.

Wish:

Can CTRL+C work the same way as CTRL+SHIFT+O when nothing is highlighted/selected and as it does now when something is highlighted.

I would have said use CTRL+SHIFT+C for what I am requesting but that combination of keys is already in use.
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Postby Garth Hutchinson » September 26th, 2010, 7:20 am

Ajay: the Ctrl-C copying current line if nothing selected has been around for years and is most handy for a lot of editing work, saving you selecting the whole line ...
R. Garth Hutchinson, BTh, FCIA
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Postby Ajay Askoolum » September 26th, 2010, 10:40 am

I do not want existing functionality to be broken!

Perhaps, a single click on any word may be made to select the whole word as it does in MS Word) and then CTRL+C might give me what I am looking for.
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Postby Patrick Parks » September 26th, 2010, 11:32 am

Ajay Askoolum wrote:I do not want existing functionality to be broken!

Perhaps, a single click on any word may be made to select the whole word as it does in MS Word) and then CTRL+C might give me what I am looking for.


My version of MS Word does NOT select a word with a single click. But a double click does select it in Word. Similarly, a double-click on a word in APL session already does select it (double left click selects and double right click edits but this can be reversed by configuration settings). And Ctrl+C at that point (with word selected) copies the selected word to clipboard. So I think you are already covered on both counts.

However, I think it would make a nice enhancement if we allowed the user to remap keys rather than being stuck with the existing (out of the box) key bindings we support in session manager.
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Postby Ajay Askoolum » September 26th, 2010, 2:09 pm

I strongly believe in 'standard - read industry-wide' key bindings. I expect CTRL+C or CTRL + V or CTRL + Z or CTRL +Y to work as expected (unlike other APLs!).

Customised key bindings deny my accrued experience: i.e. if I sit at someone else's PC, I expect the key combinations to work as I am accustomed to with APL+Win & other applications.
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Postby Patrick Parks » September 26th, 2010, 3:53 pm

Hi Ajay, and anyone else reading this thread,

Ajay Askoolum wrote:I strongly believe in 'standard - read industry-wide' key bindings. I expect CTRL+C or CTRL + V or CTRL + Z or CTRL +Y to work as expected (unlike other APLs!).

Customised key bindings deny my accrued experience: i.e. if I sit at someone else's PC, I expect the key combinations to work as I am accustomed to with APL+Win & other applications.


I'd be interested to know how many other users reading this thread share your perspective. I've always assumed most users would prefer a combination of "standard" key bindings together with the ability to modify some key bindings to suit their own preferences (even if they don't often, or ever actually do it).

I'm especially keen upon the ability to remap key bindings because I don't like to have others force their preferences on me or me to impose my preferences on others (even though I have admittedly done it many times).

One of the problems with "standards" is knowing what which one to follow. Here's one example that comes to mind immediately. ALT+F4 is a pretty standard way to close an Windows application. And yet Microsoft doesn't have a consistent way of doing it for two of their premier applications. ALT+F4 in Word closes the current document while ALT+F4 in Excel closes all instances of Excel. Which way is correct? Which is the "standard". I'd hate to be unable to override this. And if we follow this to its logical conclusion, which standard should we choose for APL? Should we make ALT+F4 close all instances of APL or just the current instance upon which it is invoked?

Another is F3 to search the next item matching the most recent search. That's pretty standard in many Windows apps. But Word has a very different idea about this. I'm a huge fan of F3 for the find-next feature. But I'm sure somebody would prefer to be able to use F3 for something else. I can guess what most people might prefer. But I hate the idea of shoving it down their throat (as we do now in APL+Win).

Pat
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Re-mapping keys

Postby Garth Hutchinson » September 27th, 2010, 7:43 am

In general, I'm with Ajay in wanting standard mappings, but agree that Microsoft seems the most flagrant abuser of their use! However, I also want to retain the ability to map short-cut keys for unmapped application functions as well as for user-written executables (macros, &c) in any application.
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