RE: Microsoft patented keyboard-navigation?

I did some trawling of the web and found an emacs manual from '97 that confirms
the feature. The following link is to a piece of emacs documentation from 1997:
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/elisp/w3/docs/w3_7.html#SEC7

 
I quote:
 
"Meta-tab, Shift-tab, b
  Attempts to move backward one link area in the current document.
  Signals an error if no previous links are found. 
tab, f, n
  Attempts to move forward one link area in the current document.
  Signals an error if no more links are found."

Seems to me that emacs/w3 had much better keyboard navigation than just a tab
key, as you could also use "f"orward, "n"ext and "b"ack.

So, if I can find this information in a matter of minutes, why does the USPTO seem
to lack this ability? Or was this information discovered but rejected? If so, why?

It seems to me that in a textual environment, which was not uncommon during our
industry's transition to window+pointer, there would need to be a mechanism to
select the next hyperlink in a document. Thus the feature would be an obvious
requirement. Not inventive. Obvious to anyone who is practised in the art of
computer programming. Not inventive.

And what of devices, such as cellphones, that are devoid of a pointing feature and
rely solely on the next/prev feature represented by its limited keyboard? What of
end users who simply cannot use a pointing feature because of some physical
limitation (e.g. an inability to see the screen)? Once again, pressing a button to go
to the next link is obvious. Not inventive.

I see a threat to the mobile/celular Web. I see a threat to Web accessibility.

I have looked at the calendar. It is not April 1.

---Rotan

Received on Tuesday, 7 September 2004 08:38:29 UTC