Re: [lmi] Allow opening cell editor with double-click

[Greg Chicares]

On 2012-01-05 15:37Z, Vadim Zeitlin wrote:
> On Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:31:15 +0000 Greg Chicares <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> GC> I agree that Enter should do the same thing as double-click. But it
> GC> seems weird that Spacebar does anything; could we prevent if from
> GC> having any effect, at least in lmi?
> 
>  The trouble is that this is really the only other standard key for doing
> this. We discussed it already with Vaclav and neither of us could really
> come with any good alternative. So if we don't use Space, what do we use?

I've suggested Alt-Enter. Ctrl-Enter would be as good.

> Perhaps nothing and just start editing in place whenever any character-
> generating key (i.e. not something like a cursor arrow or function key or
> ...) is pressed, like in a spreadsheet or wxGrid? Or would this result in
> too much accidental editing for LMI users?

That's one possible choice, and lmi already uses wxGrid (though most
users never even see it, and if wxGrid is obsolescent then someday
we should replace it with wxDVC). It would feel like a spreadsheet.
But OTOH wxDVC doesn't try to look very much like a spreadsheet,
and I do think this would result in too much accidental editing.

Another choice is to designate a mode-toggle key which, like F2, would
never be used either in editing mode or in cell-navigation mode--that's
why I suggest Alt-Enter. MS Word for DOS used Esc as a mode toggle
because it wasn't typically used for anything else in that OS.

> GC> Would it be possible to map something else (e.g., Alt-Enter) to the
> GC> inline-editing handler, in addition to F2? F2 is natural because of
> GC> the spreadsheet analogy; but I'd like a synonym (other than Spacebar)
> GC> that's easier for me to reach than an F key.
> 
>  I agree that F2 is not especially convenient (nor that easily
> discoverable) but I really don't see any key other than Space that could
> be reasonably used for this. What is the problem with using Space BTW?

I'm likely to use it for its customary purpose when in editing mode,
so it's confusing to use it as a mode switch. A toggle is preferable
to a unidirectional switch because it does the same thing regardless
of the current mode context, but Spacebar cannot be a toggle--it can't
exit editing mode because it's needed to type spaces. And I think of
Spacebar as a text key, so, if it switches mode, then I find it
confusing that the other text keys do not.