[sugar] [PATCH] #447: grab/scroll key

[Eben Eliason]

On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 11:03 AM, Brian Jordan <brian at laptop.org> wrote:
> Brilliant work, Erik! I had a chance to play with your first working
> hand scroll, and it's beyond explanation how fun it is to be able to
> scroll around using the touchpad without aiming for a gtkScrollBar.

Great to hear!  I can't wait to give it a try myself...it's been a
long time in coming.

> For all to consider: there are two grab buttons. What if one tended to
> grab + move *objects*, and the other grabs + moves
> *scenes/backgrounds*? From what I've heard, kids tend to have a hard
> time left-clicking and dragging with their same hand (as with the
> touchpad). So, for applications like Browse, both grab buttons could
> still just scroll up/down. But for graphical editors (e.g., layout
> programs, Physics, Model, anything with a scene and objects), this UI
> behavior may be a real time saver and fun to use. This would require
> giving applications the ability to process events from these two
> scroll buttons in a way that identifies them separately.

That's an interesting idea.  However, the reason there are two keys is
so that interaction works well for both left- and right-handed users,
without the need for them to cross their arms to scroll around.  What
we might be able to do, though, is map an SHIFT-HAND shortcut to a
drag/drop action instead. (I suggest shift because it's the only
modified which is present on both sides of our keyboard, for the same
reason as above.)

To make that work well, I think we'll need to manage the display of
the cursor appropriately.  perhaps we can use the
horizontal/vertical/fleur arrows to indicate scrolling options, switch
to the open hand when shift is pressed to indicate drag mode, and
switch to a closed hand after a drag has been started.

- Eben