Re: Default command key under X11

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

On 2 May 2011, at 04:36, Eric Wasylishen wrote:

> Hey,
> 
> Why don't we change the default command key under X11 to Control?
> 
> My reasoning is that the most important uses of keyboard modifiers (by far) 
> are the CUA key combinations like ctrl+c for copy, ctrl-v for paste, ctrl+z 
> for undo, etc., and since every other X11 toolkit uses the Control key for 
> these by default, I think GS should as well. It's really jarring to have to 
> switch between Ctrl when using non-GNUstep apps and Alt when using GS apps. I 
> know you can configure this using user defaults, but we should be using 
> settings that fit in with gtk/qt by default, I think. Thoughts?

I would say ... because the control key is already defined and has its own uses 
... control and command keys are separate ... I imagine it would mess lots of 
stuff up if you tried to use one key for two purposes.
Probably what you are really looking for is an alternative mapping of keyboard 
shortcuts ...I would have thought it would make sense to define a theme to 
remap standard shortcuts any way you like, without conflating the concepts of 
the different keys as far as the API is concerned.

So, when using a gnome theme, you would remap the keyboard shortcuts in the 
menus to match whatever is normal in gnome ... but the gui internals and API 
would remain consistent and OSX/OpenStep compatible.