Bug 457513 - Apply button has a different Alt accelerator key depending on the page
Summary: Apply button has a different Alt accelerator key depending on the page
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: systemsettings
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: 5.25.4
Platform: Other All
: NOR minor
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords: usability
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2022-08-05 07:25 UTC by David Chmelik
Modified: 2022-08-09 00:48 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description David Chmelik 2022-08-05 07:25:05 UTC
SUMMARY
Inconsistent menus: underlined 'apply' button keystroke everywhere varies among 'a', 'p', 'l', 'y'.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Run systemsettings.
2. Go to all menus with 'apply' button.
3. Try to select 'apply': button keystroke everywhere varies among 'a', 'p', 'l', 'y'.

OBSERVED RESULT
Inconsistent menus: underlined 'apply' button keystroke everywhere varies among 'a', 'p', 'l', 'y'.

EXPECTED RESULT
Pick one keystroke and stick with it: don't everywhere vary it and confuse users (and prevent them from learning simple/standardized systemsettings usage).

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
UNIX/GNU/Linux/KDE Plasma: FreeBSD 7+, Slackware 13+, KDE Neon *
KDE/Plasma Version: 3, 4, 5 to 5.25.4
KDE/Frameworks Version: 3, 4, 5 to 5.96.0
Qt Version: 3, 4, 5 to 5.15.5
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2022-08-08 20:56:22 UTC
I visited every page in System settings and found some interesting data.

1. When a page's internal content manually sets the accelerator key of any of its tech-based controls to the letter A, it causes the Apply button to changes its accelerator key to something else, because of course you can't have two UI elements that would be activated when you press Alt+A
2. When the Apply button's accelerator key is changed due to #1, it remains stuck on its new letter until you restart System Settings or there's a conflict with a letter in another KCM.
3. With my system language set to US English, the following pages reset the accelerator for the Apply button to something other than the letter A:
- Spell Check
- Keyboard -> go to the Layouts tab

If we could guarantee the use of US English, we could fix this by changing all KCMs to never manually use "A" as the accelerator letter in any KCMs. But of course people use a variety of languages, so in those languages, the "Apply" button is localized and may not begin with the letter A. So for *every* language, we would need to ensure that 1) the translated Apply button has its accelerator set to its first letter, whatever it is. 2) no KCM manually sets an accelerator to that same letter.

We could probably fix issue #2 without too much trouble, but #1 and #3 seem like a huge can of worms and I doubt they're easily fixable without major manual work or major re-architecting of how System Settings, the localization system, and Qt assign accelerators.

Not going to work on it myself as I feel the reward-to-effort ratio is low.
Comment 2 David Chmelik 2022-08-09 00:48:13 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #1)
> [...] If we could guarantee the use of US English [...]

Hopefully also standard/definitive/British English for which all words would presumably be same (as well as most/all international English)...