Created attachment 155904 [details] [review]
[runDialog] support arrow-up to recall previous commands

runDialog store history in gconf.

Review of attachment 155904 [details] [review]:

::: data/gnome-shell.schemas
@@ +54,3 @@
+	<owner>gnome-shell</owner>
+	<applyto>/desktop/gnome/shell/run_dialog/history</applyto>
+        <key>/schemas/desktop/gnome/shell/run_dialog/history</key>

How about:

<short>History for command (Alt-F2) dialog</short>

::: js/ui/runDialog.js
@@ +187,1 @@
 

You should to set this._iHistory = -1 here.  But can we call it "this._historyIndex" instead?

Also, in practice this isn't a big deal, but to avoid losing writes from say gconf-editor, we should also this._gconf.connect("changed::" + HISTORY_KEY) and reload this._history.

@@ +320,3 @@
+            this._history.splice(0, this._history.length - HISTORY_LIMIT);
+        if (this._history.length > HISTORY_LIMIT) {
+    _saveHistory : function() {

In practice this isn't a big deal, but to avoid losing writes from say gconf-editor, we should also this._gconf.connect("changed::" + HISTORY_KEY) and reload this._history.

@@ +326,3 @@
+        this._saveHistory();
+        this._history.push(input);
+

We should also set this._historyIndex  = this._history.length here, I think.

Created attachment 156365 [details] [review]
[runDialog] support arrow-up to recall previous commands

Review of attachment 156365 [details] [review]:

Looks fine, thanks!

Could we change the behavior to imply a list below the entry? The current behavior shows the most recent entry when pressing UP, implying that the history list is placed above the entry. I think it's more common (Firefox history, Chrome history) to present the history list below the the text entry. 

I guess the current behavior is conceptually related to how the bash history works?

Created attachment 162128 [details] [review]
Imply a recently used command list below the entry instead of above.

It took me a while to figure out the up key was used to navigate the previously used commands :-)  I guess I'm used to pressing the down key all the time in other apps.  I think I seen something about eventually changing it to be a dropdown or gnome-do kind of thing so I guess using the down key would match that design.

I've attached a patch that flips the up/down keys around if you do decide to change it.

First of all: it's generally not a good idea to add comments to closed bugs - you risk that you comments/patches go unnoticed.

In regard to the proposal in question: I don't think it makes much sense. The current behavior is following the way history works in a terminal. I'm not saying that it's completely out of question to follow the browser navigation bar model (even though alt-f2 clearly resembles a terminal prompt more than an address bar), but just swapping the array keys doesn't really cut it - browser use a drop-down list here, without that it's just bash history with reversed keys :)