Keyboard navigation UI improvement suggestion

[tim copperfield]

DVBViewer has configurable keyboard (and presumably other input devices) hotkeys.

This is not obvious to a new user that these are available, however.

 

Normally, keyboard hotkeys are listed right-aligned in the menu, so when user opens it, they can choose to click or later press the key combination required:

 

 

I'm not sure to which extent non-keyboard-non-mouse input is supported, but at least learned/set key combinations could be listed in the main/right click menus to help user learn the keys without going through options dialog.

 

DVBViewer already uses this method to show "F1" hotkey for help menu. Why not add others?

 

 

[Griga]

I know what you mean. I tried to accomplish something similar for the 6.0.4 release (shortcuts displayed in toolbar hints) and found that the existing data structures allowed to retrieve the action belonging to a user defined keyboard shortcut, but not the other way round. So I tried to change it (quite laborious), but then got language specific translations for key combinations that I wouldn't like to see in a menu:

 

Alt + Shift Subtract (NUMERIC KEYPAD)

 

In German it's even longer (NUMERISCHES TASTENFELD). Partly it is spoiled by DVBViewer, partly by the Windows API. That's the point where I gave up. For now.... a new translation method is required first.

 

[tim copperfield]

2 hours ago, Griga said:

In German it's even longer (NUMERISCHES TASTENFELD). Partly it is spoiled by DVBViewer, partly by the Windows API. That's the point where I gave up. For now.... a new translation method is required first.

 

That's really strange.

Because the problem you're describing is actually directly solved by the Windows API, more specifically, GetKeyNameText()

Here's an example of it being used: http://www.setnode.com/blog/mapvirtualkey-getkeynametext-and-a-story-of-how-to/

 

I'm not sure (and probably don't want to know, either) how these things are stored by DVBViewer, but all Windows users expect a consistent keyboard / hotkey names as used by other standard Windows software.

Perhaps you can use the above function to get the official Microsoft-created key names (which are likely adjusted to match whatever keyboard layout is in use - see another bug I opened on this) and then use that to both store keyboard customization data as well as use it for standard display of hotkeys in menus.

 

EDIT: again, all this is based strictly on keyboard data. I don't know how external input devices (IR remotes, Joysticks, etc) are handled by the "learn" function of Input configuration dialog, and how translations of their names are done.

Edited November 1, 2017 by tim copperfield

[Griga]

4 hours ago, tim copperfield said:

Because the problem you're describing is actually directly solved by the Windows API, more specifically, GetKeyNameText()

 

Exactly that gave me the (NUMERISCHES TASTENFELD). All in capital letters. You know, it SHOUTS at you when you open a menu. Not really nice. There are user defined key combinations that usually don't show up as shortcuts in menus, that's the problem.