GUI keyboard shortcuts

[Thorsten Liebig]

Hi all,

the release is close and I think it is now or never we should discuss
the keyboard shortcuts for the Octave GUI.

As I understand we want to try to get Matlab users to feel at home with
the new Octave GUI and to me the proper keyboard-shortcuts would be
important in that regard.

Firstly, Matlab has a completely configurable list of shortcuts which
would be nice to have as well, but maybe to complex for now?
Secondly it has some presets to choose, I will only refer to the one
"Windows default set" and not the "Emacs default set" which is default
on Linux.

Here are my thoughts:

"Comment/Uncomment":
Octave: CTRL+7/8   no idea why these two, but I really have trouble
using these with just one hand... and I hate to use both hands for a
shortcut...
Matlab uses CTRL+R/T  I like that much better, but maybe I'm just used
to it...

The problem is that it happens regularly to me that instead of a comment
I run my script instead (and deleting my workspace...)

"Run a script":
Octave: CTRL+R  (conflicts with Matlabs comment shortcut)
Matlab:  F5
I find F5 much more intuitive, especially since it is continue in
debugging mode as well...

"Help on Selection":
Octave: does not have this as a shortcut, only context menu entry
Matlab: F1
This is a really nice feature, just put your cursor on a function and
hit F1 to get the help text! Having it in a overlay-windows like Matlab
would be nice, but just executing "help <function>" in the command
window would be good enough for now. Drawback, if a command is running,
this will not react...
Should be done easily since we already have it in the context menu?

"Open Selection":
Octave: does not have this
Matlab: CTRL+D
This is my favorite shortcut with Matlab especially if you work with
lots of functions (as I usually do). Put your cursor on the function and
press CTRL+D and the function opens as a new tab in the editor... Having
this in the context menu as well and calling "edit <function>" would be
nice. Drawback, if a command is running, this will not react...

"Evaluate Selection":
Octave: not available
Matlab: F9
Select some lines, press F9 and the selection will be evaluated, very
useful, e.g. if you just play around with some lines for plotting...

And I'm pretty sure there are a few more I'm missing...

I'm looking forward to hear your opinions

best regards
Thorsten