Action button labels

[Caine]

Putting plus and minus on the two additional gaming controls seems like a bad idea to me.

First of all it breaks spatial correlation of buttons on the regular keyboard. I.e. if ABXY are Home/End/PgDn/PgUp then from a PC keyboard perspective it seems logical to assume that the other buttons are insert and delete.

Second, + and - have normal and shifted values on regular keyboards. Normally + is shifted - is not. One might expect the normal shifted/unshifted values _ and = to be assigned to them as well. Breaking this keyboard correlation means extra effort when dealing with key mappings in applications (take for instance the weird key mappings in dosbox) and potentially shadowing or invalidating key combinations which are possible on a regular keyboard.

Third, while I assume, for backwards compatibility reasons, that ABXY will be bound, by default, to Home/End/PgDn/PgUp, it stands to reason that if the key has a combined mapping that Ins/Del would be the defaults as well. Labelling them so prominently as + and - seems to suggest that their default mappings correspond to these. This makes it a tad inconsistent.

Finally, combining del (which can be destructive) with an innocent indestructive key as + or - seems a bit unsafe to me.

To be honest, this argument also backfires a bit on my preference for an ins/del mapping as putting a possible destructive action on a gaming control without explicitly labelling it as such (note e.g. that Home/End/PgDn/PgUp are not particularly discoverable on the Pandora). I suppose mapping Ins to AltGr+Enter and Del to AltGr+Backspace could work (please avoid the mistake of putting Ins on shift+Backspace again). But, as mentioned, this would be a bit inconsistent with Ins/Del being AltGr keys and Home/End/PgDn/PgUp not.

 

[Neelix]

It occurred to me that the two extra buttons might well be good candidates to double as mouse buttons (leaving the right nub for scrolling)  in which case I would probably call them ML and MR.

- Neelix

 

[comradekingu]

1. A lot of trackpads employ pageUP and PageDown functionality, (scrolling) it is not logical to assume insert end and home is given the same emphasis.

2. On a regular keyboard + and - is on the numpad.   They are duplicated on the regular plane too with primary key effects.  You are implying regular keyboard layout is logical and coherent, it isnt.

3. You could do that, however, its not the most used functionality.

I agree with a lot of your sentiments, have a look at http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/15275-unofficial-keyboard-layoutsmarch-14th-2014/#entry325460  in the layout thread

Neelix: The nubs are buttons, mouse buttons presumably.

 

[Granitehead]

What im saying is that G is an arbitrary letter, it could just as easily have been C, or K, or Q.  You dont really need to symbolize the arrows.

Read my post again, where I suggested G or R. If you have already, then disprove my argument or give equally sensible arguments for C, K and Q.

 

[comradekingu]

Hmm, didn't read that well, thought it was replicating the Gs on XT keyboards or logitech keyboards. We are talking past eachother, what i meant is if a paradigm doesnt meet the criterias it doesn't work on a wide range. Rather, it is limited, in this case to something that is already on the plate.