Re: Proposal for Keyboard Shortcuts for HTML5

> I have also found situations in which it would be to override default
> browser behavior
> however I can also see the potential for abuse in which malicious code
> would try to prevent users form leaving a page.
>
>
> On 9/20/07, David Dailey <david.dailey@sru.edu > wrote:
>>
>>
>> At 07:03 AM 9/20/2007, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
>>
>> >Hi everyone,
>> >
>> >Keyboard shortcuts are useful for a number of reasons:
>>
>> I agree with Asbjørn Ulsberg -- a very good
>> suggestion. So many times that I've tried to
>> create a web app using CTRL A, CTRL C, CTRL V,
>> and their cousins so that the user can copy and
>> paste content that she has created and the like
>> only to find that the browser has absconded with
>> these things, and of course all browsers just
>> enough differently to cause minor anguish. CTRL R
>> (which I wanted to use to reselect a previously
>> selected subgraph in a graph drawing utility )
>> turned out to be particularly destructive to
>> dynamic content the user had developed since it
>> means refresh the browser window (aka kill all
>> newly created content). Additional safeguards so
>> that one can override browser functions which
>> might be destructive to dynamic content might be
>> welcome as well, though perhaps the proposed solution addresses this as
>> well.


I would definitely agree that a key-binding mechanism is important for
HTML documents. Maciej's proposal shares some qualities with the proposal
on the wiki[1]. I think it would be especially important to add attributes
to the command element (as well as possibly the li element for menus and
the option element for select elements). So I think we have those
attributes to add, but I think the QName approach is much better than the
character approach. It creates a much more device independent mechanism
for keybindings. The example already given of trying to bind cnrl-c and
cntrl-v shows just how misguided the character data type would be (as
someone who uses keybinding regularly but would never look for copy or
paste on anything modified by the control key).

Also by employing a target and action in addition to a key binding and
also wrapping this together with in the chrome menus, contextual menus and
document page menus, it provides much more  flexibility for authors and
users. This may be what the command element is already meant to address,
but Its not clear from the current draft nor any of the responses I've
gotten about that element what use cases it addresses. Finally, the
cascading approach in the wiki proposal also help users better manage key
binding mechanisms and their priorities.

Take care,
Rob

[1]: <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/KeyBindingMarkup>

Received on Thursday, 20 September 2007 20:52:42 UTC