Message: 2
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 00:20:13 +0100 (BST) From: Alan Horkan
To: David Neary
Cc: usability@gnome.org
Subject: Re: [Usability] Re: [Gimp-developer] Redo shortcut (was: Undo shortcut)

For those of you on the usability list wondering what this is about, a few weeks ago I asked for the GIMP to follow the Gnome HIG, KDE Guidelines, Apple Guidelines and Adobe Photoshop and use Ctrl+Shift+Z as the keybinding for Redo.

Well if the issue is fast access to the redo function (the claim seems to be that shift+ctrl+z is slower than ctrl+y), I would counter that keybindings are actually slower to use for most users aanyway and that apple research dating back to the eighties has shown this. A faster solution would be to provide a toolbar in every gimp window with common functions and to make this toolbar configurable so that more advance users can tailor it to their liking. The default would most likely mirror the toolbars of traditional document oriented apps (cut, copy, paste, redo, undo etc.).

There is more than a little resistance to the idea but the change is currently in CVS (thanks to Dave Neary) and expert advice helping to back up the decision would be appreciated. The ability for users to set their own custom keybindings is reasonably well known especially among more experienced GIMP users, but people feel very strongly about keeping the old keybinding as the default.

I'm not really familiar with the gimp's goals and target audience, but if they do intend to make the gimp a transparent part of free (and in the case of Macintosh and I think Windows, non-free) desktops, it would be best to follow the standard here.

dave