Bug 96973

Summary: Message selection should be according to normal GUI rules by default
Product: [Unmaintained] kmail Reporter: Noam Raphael <noamraph>
Component: generalAssignee: kdepim bugs <kdepim-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE    
Severity: wishlist    
Priority: NOR    
Version: 1.6.2   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: unspecified   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Noam Raphael 2005-01-14 10:24:39 UTC 
Version:           1.6.2 (using KDE 3.2.3,  (testing/unstable))
Compiler:          gcc version 3.3.3 (Debian 20040422)
OS:                Linux (i686) release 2.6.7-1-386

Currently, the up and down keys scroll the message, and the right and left keys select the displayed messages, regardless of the panel which has focus. This is very comfortable if you know about it. However, this is not intuitive. There are a lot of bug reports on this (24355, 42543, 21256, 41681, 33994, 34375, 67459, 17240), and I (and probably many others) was about to send one before I saw these bug reports, so I learned that I should use right+left.

User interface should be intuitive and consistent. Users go to the help when they don't know how to do something, not when the user interface doesn't function the way the expect it to.

I agree that the current key binding are very nice if you know them, but I think most users will never learn about them, and stay annoyed. What should be done is this: add an *option* to set this binding. This way, normal users will get the expected, even if not the most comfortable, key binding. Advanced users will go over the settings window looking for things which could make their life easier, find this, and say, "Wow! Cool!".

I posted this as a comment to bug 67459, but got no replies. I thought that maybe if I post a new bug it will be noticed.

Really - I'm certain that the current situation leaves most users simply annoyed by kmail. Why should it be that way?

Thanks,
Noam Raphael
Comment 1 Andreas Gungl 2005-01-14 10:46:42 UTC 
Am Freitag, 14. Januar 2005 10:24 schrieb Noam Raphael:
> I agree that the current key binding are very nice if you know them, but
> I think most users will never learn about them, and stay annoyed. What
> should be done is this: add an *option* to set this binding. This way,
> normal users will get the expected, even if not the most comfortable, key
> binding. Advanced users will go over the settings window looking for
> things which could make their life easier, find this, and say, "Wow!
> Cool!".
>
> I posted this as a comment to bug 67459, but got no replies. I thought
> that maybe if I post a new bug it will be noticed.
>
> Really - I'm certain that the current situation leaves most users simply
> annoyed by kmail. Why should it be that way?

Well, it's that way because the capacity of the active KMail developers is 
limited. Current work concentrates on IMAP and workgroup features. 
Additionally, IMO key bindings are on low priority for the developers, 
because they know about the comfort with the current bindings and like it.

If someone sends a patch which allows different keyboard schemes, I'm sure 
it will get attention and finally included into the KMail sources. Another 
try might be going to http://www.kontact.org/shopping/ - however I believe 
this is more intersting for companies than individuals.
Comment 2 Noam Raphael 2005-01-14 12:04:31 UTC 
Right. However, before someone makes this change (which I assume is a very minor one), shouldn't this be recognised as something which ought to change?
Comment 3 Thiago Macieira 2005-01-17 03:08:58 UTC 

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 96301 ***