Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!hacgate!ashtate!dbase!awd
From: awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Time for standard cmd-keys & menu command locations
Summary: Time for standards, eh?
Message-ID: <246@dbase.UUCP>
Date: 22 Sep 89 19:07:27 GMT
References: <15720@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Organization: Ashton Tate Devlopment Center Glendale, Calif.
Lines: 13


Here's the problem.  Every application has its own emphasis.  Command-key
equivalents speed up the operations that are most natural for the app.  You
can't dictate a standard set because, for example, some programs want to 
make it easy to print (cmd-P) and some programs want to make it easy to
choose plain text (cmd-P).  In a word processor, Plain comes up more often
than Print.  In a drawing program (which still supports Plain text), Print
is nonetheless more common.

I think it is certainly a good idea to make command-key equivalents user-
modifiable with ResEdit; I'm amazed at products that make it impossible.

/alastair/