Keymap editor feedback

[Maxence Bernard]

Hey Arik,

Here's some initial feedback on the keymap editor you just committed, starting with your notes in the commit log :

• "not all action descriptions are clear, i.e describe what the actions should do."

=> we could / should display the tooltip text associated with the action, when available. It's usually too long to fit inside the table so I suggest we display it below the table when an item/row is selected.

• "the respond to the case that the user enters keystroke that is already registered to another action should be decided and changed."

=> agreed, that got me confused at first, thinking that the keystroke was not detected when it was just assigned to another action. Perhaps we could display a message like "This shortcut [Alt+Enter] is already assigned to 'Show properties'" below the table ?

• "when the action keymap is saved to the xml file, all the comments in it are lost."

=> those comments will be less relevant now that there is an editor, especially if we display action tooltips. I don't think this is an issue and I don't see how we could preserve those comments anyway.

• I think it would help a lot to understand what action does what if they were organized by categories, in a similar fashion to the "Keyboard shortcuts" dialog in the Help menu. One way to do this would be to add a 'Category' combo box before the table that would filter the actions to be displayed : only the actions belonging to the selected category would be displayed. There could also be an 'All' category to display all actions, regardless of their category. What do you think ?

• We could display a grayed-out message in the keyboard input field when it expects an input from the user (after it is clicked or Enter is pressed). Something like "Type in a shortcut". I think this would help the user get the hang of the input field.

• Table rendering feels a bit unnatural as it is but I understand this is a work-in-progress. Note that I'm only referring to the looks, not the 'feels'.

• (thinking aloud) I was wondering if the keymap editor should live in the preferences or in a dedicated dialog. But all in all I think it's more intuitive to have it in the preferences like you did.

• I'll find a 'keyboard' icon for the preference tab and commit it

That's all I can think of for now. Great job on this, the feature is already very usable and mighty useful !

Cheers,

Maxence