Bug 69319

Summary: no way to use pageup/pagedown without shift key
Product: [Applications] konsole Reporter: rfc469
Component: generalAssignee: Konsole Developer <konsole-devel>
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL    
Severity: wishlist CC: bugs.kde.org, robertknight
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Gentoo Packages   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description rfc469 2003-11-30 05:28:54 UTC
Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.1.4)
Installed from:    Gentoo Packages
OS:          Linux

I really dislike having to hold down the SHIFT key to use PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN (and I don't understand the point of that?)  It would be fantastic if there was a box or something to select whether or not you wanted that behavior.

I actually hacked the source for a previous version of KDE to fix this but it wasn't a professional job and it's a lot of work to do that for every KDE release.

Thanks!
Comment 1 Stephan Kulow 2003-11-30 10:41:49 UTC
how do you use pgdown in e.g. vi or bash then?
Comment 2 rfc469 2003-11-30 23:02:38 UTC
In vi I use Ctrl-F/Ctrl-B.  Actually the PAGEUP/PAGEDOWN doesn't work for me in vi because I have my TERM set to vt100 (I don't like how the screen returns to the original contents when suspending a job with TERM=xterm).  But I see your point.  Perhaps most people prefer the default behavior.  I am used to the IRIX xwsh.  If no one else votes for this bug I guess I can learn to live with it.

Another thing I hacked which I forgot to mention was to make the HOME and END keys work.  Those don't seem to work for me even with my TERM set to xterm?  Thanks.
Comment 3 rfc469 2004-05-16 18:36:15 UTC
Updating the bug report, as requested.  I'm leaving it open since I would still prefer to have the option of using PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN without holding down SHIFT.  I see that no one else has voted for this though, so I won't expect it to happen soon.  Thanks.
Comment 4 Thomas Wolff 2005-03-04 15:14:14 UTC
Could you please be more precise as to which PAGEUP and DOWN keys you mean?
Typical keyboards nowadays have two of them each.
If your X keyboard is configured properly, different symbols for them 
are sent to the applications, e.g. Prior/Next for the "small keypad" 
(the one with often 6 keys), and KP_Prior/KP_Next for the digit block 
which in "application mode" also serves as a large keypad.
I have configure my xterm so that the "small keypad" Page Up/Down keys 
scroll the screen while the "application keypad" keys are sent to the 
program inside xterm which is a very useful configuration.

By the way, I think it's very annoying that konsole suppresses 
(to say somewhat more than "ignores") the middle key of the "application 
keypad" (the "5" key) which is often very useful for applications.
It should emit ESC [ E or ESC O E, depending on keypad mode.
Comment 5 Robert Knight 2006-08-11 13:07:29 UTC
Maybe I am missing something but PageUp/PageDown work fine here in Vi and others without pressing the Shift key?

Does this still happen under KDE 3.5.3 for you?
Comment 6 rfc469 2006-08-14 16:34:51 UTC
I would like for them to work in a shell (konsole).  In Vi I always use Ctrl-F/Ctrl-B.  I'm using KDE 3.5.2 but I doubt this has been added.
Comment 7 Robert Knight 2006-08-14 17:40:32 UTC
Ah sorry, I understand what you mean.

What is happening is that PageUp/PageDown keys are always sent to the program running in the shell.  This means that they work as expected in Vi,man etc.

In order to scroll the output up and down, a separate key combination is used which is interpreted by Konsole (which then scrolls the output) instead of being sent to the terminal.

One possibility might be to treat PageUp/PageDown as "Shift+PageUp / Shift+PageDown" when the output is scrollable or just send it to the application if the output is not scrollable (eg.  in Vi,man,less where the scrollbar becomes unmoveable and the program itself handles the PageUp/PageDown keys).  

I'm concerned that this might cause problems in some terminal applications though.  

Comment 8 rfc469 2006-08-19 19:36:19 UTC
That would be cool...  Maybe it could be an option?
Comment 9 Robert Knight 2007-07-09 00:32:56 UTC
> That would be cool...  Maybe it could be an option? 
 
It occurred to me that the logic I posted earlier will fall apart in Linux terminals where the secondary screen is not used by Vim and friends.  I also expect that there are terminal applications which don't use the alternate screen but which still make use of Page Up / Page Down.

If you really want this behaviour, it is already available by modifying the keyboard bindings for Konsole (by writing a custom .keytab file) so that the page up and page down keys map to the "scrollpageup" and "scrollpagedown" commands.  
Comment 10 Mike Schwager 2008-08-14 18:23:56 UTC
As far as I'm concerned, requiring the shift key for Page Up/Page Down is a  design flaw.  As it turns out, it actually moves through my shell history, which has little to do with paging up / down.

This is not truly resolved.