GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 733297
Cannot use mnemonics in the window menu (and other shell menus)
Last modified: 2017-11-14 13:05:45 UTC
gnome-shell-3.13.3-1.fc20.x86_64 Hi, I just noticed that the keyboard short-cuts for the window menus don't work any more. As in, `alt spacebar` brings down the menu, but I cannot press 'z' to maximize the window etc. Regression perhaps? Thanks, Warm regards, Ankur
Moving to the gnome-shell component, as the window-menu.js building the menu is part of gnome-shell.
In case you need a workaround, Alt-F10 to maximize and similar shortcuts still work. I don't think the shell has mnemonics in its menus anywhere, and I'm not sure we want to start introducing them now.
If I remember correctly, Giovanni had a patch for mnemonic support in the app menu at some point, but it was turned down by the design team; so yeah, I don't think we are going to introduce them in the window menu now ...
This sounds like a regression to me, we should start thinking about mnemonics in shell for the next iteration
(In reply to comment #3) > If I remember correctly, Giovanni had a patch for mnemonic support in the app > menu at some point, but it was turned down by the design team; so yeah, I don't > think we are going to introduce them in the window menu now ... The specific point was that we should have an app-specific help overlay showing all of the shortcuts. It's a neat idea, but we clearly haven't done anything with it.
(In reply to comment #5) > The specific point was that we should have an app-specific help overlay showing > all of the shortcuts. It's a neat idea, but we clearly haven't done anything > with it. That would be shortcuts, not mnemonics - am I misremembering that there *also* was a patch for the latter?
Renaming bug for clarity
Updating version to 3.14 I think mnemonics are a really handy tool to have, especially with the shell which is *awesome* to use when only using a keyboard. I use arrow keys to get to the required menu at the moment, but the mnemonics were more efficient (no need to move your hand to get to the arrow keys, single key press instead of multiple). It isn't too big a deal, just something that would be nice to have.
Also, the keyboard arrows wrap around navigation is missing. When at the top item, pressing used to go to the last item. Super handy for doing close :)
*** Bug 664403 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 750732 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to Florian Müllner from comment #6) > That would be shortcuts, not mnemonics - am I misremembering that there > *also* was a patch for the latter? This is extremely late, but you're not misremembering. It's bug #668046
The window menu should have mnemonics that are independent from an app itself because the app shouldn't need to manage it's state for being "Always on Top" etc. I would also agree that this is a regression because the mnemonics have existed in previous gnome-shell versions and afaik every other window manager (at least every other window manager I've used).
Related, only arrow keys work to navigate the menu. PgUp/PgDn/home/end do nothing. The window context menu behaves very little like a genuine context menu and is very irritating to use without this basic functionality. Now you have to memorize a bunch more keyboard shortcuts that don't work everywhere.
*** Bug 742470 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Can someone please finally confirm (possibly using the bug's status) if a patch to fix this would be accepted or not? I would be happy to write one. As far as I can there is no mnemonic support anywhere in St, so that would have to be fixed at the same time. I'm talking about the menu with Minimize/Maximize/… in it that you can access by pressing alt-space - hopefully some of the terms above are referring to this one too.
This is really critical. It severely limits usability when you're used to quickly hitting "alt-space n/x," for example, or to resize a window. I realise there are other shortcut keys available for most of these functions, but that is beside the point—they should both exist. Learning new shortcuts takes time, and not having mnemonics on the menu doesn't have any advantage whatsoever. No one is required to use them. This is simply how people expect menus to work. It seems like it would be such a *trivial* fix to this regression!
*** Bug 783728 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 681030 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
With the upcoming switch of Ubuntu from Unity (where this feature has always existed) to GNOME Shell (where it never has), it feels like a regression for Ubuntu users to suddenly find that the keyboard shortcuts for window management no longer work. Would someone please comment on whether a patch would be accepted to add this feature in?
*** Bug 790317 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This is an issue for users that cannot use mouse (older users with limited fine motor control, essential tremor, or similar problems). If the design team does not like enabling it globally, maybe an option in accessibility menu could be added? Though I do not see why it could not be enabled by default, with the hints only shown when alt key is pressed, and the option would just make it visible all the time.