Re: [platform-swt-dev] Re: [Bug 19568] {} on a german keyboard [swt-carb

[Andre Weinand <weinand@xxxxxxx>]

> a) That's confusing. Command->CTRL. Ctrl->ALT. Alt/option->nothing.

Have you tried it? I did, so I *know* its not confusing :-)
(and I'm switching between Window and Mac several times a day)
Eclipse on Mac has used Command instead of Control from the beginning,
and nobody has ever complained :-)


> b) Alt/option->nothing doesn't allow the alternate-menu usage of option.

Yes, but there seems to be no generic way to find out (for all 
existing keyboards)
whether Alt-<any key> maps to a special character or
whether the Alt modifier is available for mapping to an 'alternate-menu usage'.

> Is this just something to get code written for other platforms to work
> without a lot of change? Mapping Ctrl->Alt is going to be very weird for the
> user if any existing applications use Alt for anything. The user can see
> "alt" plainly printed on the option key.

No, I suggest to map Alt to Ctrl. Please count how many times Alt is 
used in Eclipse.

Yes 'Alt' is written on the option key, however the world 'Alt' will 
not appear on any of the Menu-Items after Alt has been mapped to 
Control. So people using Eclipse only on one platform should not be 
confused because they don't know that Control-something is 
Alt-something on Windows.

> The basic problem is, SWT is one key short. Ergo, cramming the Macintosh
> into that mold loses a key.
>
> How about adding SWT.COMMAND? Then the mapping could be Command->COMMAND,
> Ctrl->CTRL, Alt->ALT.

Would not help. See my earlier posting how modifiers are used on the Mac.

--andre