Andrew Savory lists@andrewsavory.com wrote:
Or how about "Microsoft and Apple plough millions into usability studies, perhaps they have a point"
They are not immune from making goofs (and many books have been written about their goofs) and just adopting their decisions ignores our own past work.
or "if 95% of the population expect CTRL-A to select all, perhaps we should be consistent",
That is not true, though.
or "current keybindings date back to limited capability terminals, it's time to move on"?
Some have survived for a reason. Others have not.
As long as it's reconfigurable, I don't see a problem.
Having to reconfigure it everywhere is a real pain and GTK seems not to use the X Resource Database, so it's not even consistent on the one display until you edit everywhere that you run programs. Having the new default cause injury to users used to the old default *of the same application* is also very bad.
Home is a very poor key for such a common function, being over on the navigation keypad, making you relocate your hands.
Only one hand, and only one keypress rather than an RSI-inducing key combo.
Much more RSI is caused by relocating your hands continuously, IIRC. We type combinations in most sentences. Where do you get the idea that control-A runs the risk of RSI more than relocating twice?
"Home" is a lot better for "start of buffer"
CTRL-Home
That's making a simple thing a hard-to-reach combo.
<comment type="inflammatory common sense">
Inflammatory? Yes. Common-sense? No.
There is no usability study evidence to support injuring users. There is hardly any to support ^A as select all, even on Windows. Unless, of course, you know otherwise?