150627 - inconsistant between display and action(modifier) of short cut key for function 'Select All'

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect)

Description

[Henry Jia]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.0rc2)
Gecko/20020512 Netscape/7.0b1
BuildID:    00000000

On unix platform, short cut key 'Ctrl+A' is used for going to the begin of line
and 'Alt+A' is used for the function 'Select All' when editing something in
mozilla. Mozilla really does so.
See the 'Mozilla Keyboard Assignment Map'
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ui/accessibility/mozkeyplan.html

And, on unix platform, mozilla set the short cut key(modifier) for the function
'Select All' in all enviroments(browser, mailnews, composer, etc) to 'Alt+A'.
But when you pull down the 'Edit' menu, you'll see the default modifier(if you
don't change the 'ui.key.accelKey' manually in your preference) for 'Select All'
is 'Ctrl+A'. This is inconsistant.
The reason you can use the short cut key 'Ctrl+A' in browser and mailnews is
because mozilla set the short cut key for 'Select All', one is
'accel+A'('Ctrl+A' by default) and the other is 'Alt+A'. This is not needed(at
least, the concept is not so clear), in my personal opinion, we should file
another bug. Waiting for your feedback.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.run mozilla
2.go to composer
3.do 'Select All' using the short cut key(should be 'Alt+A')
4.pull down the 'Edit' menu, see the tip for the short cut key of 'Select All',
it is 'Ctrl+A' by default

Actual Results:  Show 'Ctrl+A' be default for function 'Select All' which short
cut key is 'Alt+A' on unix platform

Expected Results:  Show 'Alt+A' for the short cut key 'Alt+A'

Comment 1

[Henry Jia]

Let me take care of this bug. Add [e-mail] (Samir Gehani) to the
'CC' list.

Comment 2

[Henry Jia]

CCing to Aaron and [e-mail].

Comment 3

[Henry Jia]

Attachment: patch for review

Make the display and the action of short cut key(modifier) 'Alt+A' for function
'Select All' consistant on unix platform.
As a atf member, so glad to contribute a patch in this area.

Comment 4

[Akkana Peck]

r=akkana on the key binding lines.  Works nicely here with both accel key
settings.  I notice that ctrl-A still does a select-all if focus is in the
content window, not a textarea -- I guess that's coming from an XBL binding. 
That's perfect: everything that worked before still works, but the menus will
document the handler that always works, rather than the one that only works
sometimes.

I don't understand the DOCTYPE changes.  Is that related to this bug, or is it
for a different bug?  It looks like it has something to do with making the
overlays more localizable.  I'm sure it's fine, and it didn't cause any problem
here, but I'd like to understand why it's there before marking the whole patch
reviewed (unless someone else who understands it wants to review that part).

Comment 5

[Henry Jia]

Thx, Akkana. 

The reason for the DOCTYPE change is to use the string definition of
'selectAllCmd.key'. It is defined in utilityOverlay.dtd instead of 
platformCommunicatorOverlay.dtd.

Comment 6

[Akkana Peck]

Comment on attachment 87095 [details] [diff] [review]
patch for review

Thanks for the explanation.  I'm not familiar with the syntax, but it does seem
to work and I'll trust you that it's the right thing.  I'm setting the reviewed
bit, but please get an sr from someone who can double-check the doctype syntax
change, or else get an additional reviewer to verify those lines.

Comment 7

[Joe Hewitt (gone)]

Comment on attachment 87095 [details] [diff] [review]
patch for review

looks good, thanks Henry!

sr=hewitt

Comment 8

[Henry Jia]

Checked into trunk.

Mark as fixed.

Comment 9

[Henry Jia]

Apply for a= for branchOEM

Comment 10

[Henry Jia]

fixed in OEM branch