[kepler-dev] [Ptolemy] "Look Inside" changed to "Open Actor"

Tue Dec 13 07:29:57 PST 2005

If you look here:
http://kepler-project.org/Wiki.jsp?page=MenuAndToolBarReDesign

You'll see what I've proposed for Kepler for a revamping of the menu system.
In it, Ctrl-O is used for Open File, and as Edward has noted this is fairly
standard in Windows and some other systems/programs.  When I reviewed the
shortcuts, I looked at several programs to see what the common shortcut
usages were.

I am proposing "O" as a mnemonic for the "Open Actor" item but I did not
provide a shortcut simply because it is not needed since we had decided to
go with double clicking an actor as opening it. 

I am also proposing ctrl++ and ctrl+- as shortcuts for zoom in and zoom out.
These are also pretty standard across many programs.  They do not appear in
my design because the program I'm using for prototyping wouldn't allow me to
specify those special characters (+ and -) as shortcuts.

BTW, ctrl+A is most often used for Select All in Microsoft I believe even
though I proposed using it for Save As which I've seen in some programs and
because right now we don't have a "Select All" in Kepler.  "A" is usually
the mnemonic for Save As so that was an attempt to match the same letter.

Laura L. Downey
Senior Usability Engineer
LTER Network Office
Department of Biology, MSC03 2020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM  87131-0001
505.277.3157 phone
505.277-2541 fax
ldowney at lternet.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: kepler-dev-bounces at ecoinformatics.org
[mailto:kepler-dev-bounces at ecoinformatics.org] On Behalf Of Edward A. Lee
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 7:34 AM
To: Christopher Brooks
Cc: ptresearch at chess.eecs.berkeley.edu; kepler-dev at ecoinformatics.org
Subject: Re: [kepler-dev] [Ptolemy] "Look Inside" changed to "Open Actor"

I think we should stick with Windows conventions as much as possible...
I actually put a great deal of thought into the shortcuts to try to get
them to match Microsoft standards as much as possible and to have matching
mnemonics... This was probably one reason for calling this "Look Inside".
But I too like "Open Actor" better...

So I suggest rolling back to Control-L...

Edward

At 08:21 PM 12/12/2005 -0800, Christopher Brooks wrote:
>Yah, I figure it that it would be a problem.
>
>Firefox, IE and MS Word all have Control-O as File Open.
>
>I see several options with minus and pluses:
>
>1) Stick with Control-O as the shortcut for "Open Actor"
>    - Annoy all users used to lots of Windows Apps
>    + Convenient and Mnemonic
>2) Go back to Control-L
>    - Not Mnemonic, but makes a good trivia question
>    + Does not break users used to lots of Windows Apps
>    + Edward and I don't have to learn a new shortcut
>3) Choose another key, such as Control-A
>    -/+ Sort of Mnemonic
>    - Conflicts with Select All
>
>For now, I'll roll back to Control-L.
>I think this might be why we stuck with Look Inside.
>
>Comments?
>
>_Christopher
>
>--------
>
>
>
>     Control-O is already bound to "Open File", so I think this change
>     will break that... Using Control-O for open file is pretty common
>     in Windows programs...
>
>     Edward
>
>     At 07:00 PM 12/12/2005 -0800, Christopher Brooks wrote:
>     >The Kepler group asked that "Look Inside" be changed to "Open Actor".
>     >[Personally, I was opting for "Open Sesame" ]
>     >
>     >http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2110
>     >
>     >I went ahead and made this change to
>     >   ptolemy/vergil/actor/ActorController.java
>     >I also modified the short cut so that Control-O now opens the
>     >actor instead of Control-L.  If there is great hue and cry, I suppose
>     >we could have both Control-O and Control-L but I don't see how to do
>     >this.
>     >
>     >ActorController has a protected variable named _lookInsideAction
which
>     >I did not rename so as to preserve backward compatibility with
>     >subclasses of this class.
>     >
>     >I updated a few demos as well.
>     >
>     >These classes:
>     >   ptolemy/chic/ChicController.java
>     >   ptolemy/vergil/fsm/TransitionController.java
>     >   ptolemy/vergil/fsm/StateController.java
>     >all still have "Look Inside" because the "Look Inside" action looks
>     >inside a Chic node or a transition or a state, which are all not
>     >actors.  Thus "Open Actor" does not make much sense in for those
>     >classes.  If someone has a strong opinion, I could change them as
>     >well.
>     >
>     >Once the dust settles, I'll make a pass through the docs and fix up
>     >references to "Look Inside".
>     >
>     >_Christopher
>     >
>     >
>     >_______________________________________________
>     >Ptolemy maillist  -  Ptolemy at chess.eecs.berkeley.edu
>     >http://chess.eecs.berkeley.edu/ptolemy/listinfo/ptolemy
>
>     ------------
>     Edward A. Lee
>     Professor, Chair of the EE Division, Associate Chair of EECS
>     231 Cory Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720
>     phone: 510-642-0253 or 510-642-0455, fax: 510-642-2845
>     eal at eecs.Berkeley.EDU, http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/~eal
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     Ptolemy maillist  -  Ptolemy at chess.eecs.berkeley.edu
>     http://chess.eecs.berkeley.edu/ptolemy/listinfo/ptolemy
>--------

------------
Edward A. Lee
Professor, Chair of the EE Division, Associate Chair of EECS
231 Cory Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720
phone: 510-642-0253 or 510-642-0455, fax: 510-642-2845
eal at eecs.Berkeley.EDU, http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/~eal  

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