Usability: tapping ALT short doesn't show mnemonics, and it does on Windows and Qt-based desktops
@JonasT
Submitted by Jonas Thiem Link to original bug (#753738)
Description
This is my very unfavorable experience with current GTK3 menu mnemonics:
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I press ALT. Initially, nothing happens. I'm confused. If I wasn't a developer with some GTK+ experience knowing it supports mnemonics, I might already have concluded the application doesn't have any.
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After like a full second of pressing ALT the menu bar finally shows underlined mnemonics. "oh, so it ISNT broken.. ?"
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I click a menu item on the menu bar while still having alt pressed, opening the respective menu. No mnemonics in the menu. At this point I'm thinking: "what is going on, it's only working for HALF of the things? "
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I smash ALT around hoping to get it to work and now the ones for the submenu turn up. It turns out you need to release ALT and press it again to have them on the submenu - why??
This goes contrary against how mnemonics historically work and if you're not prepared for it, it's just extremely confusing. This is how it should work instead:
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The shortest press of ALT should instantly show mnemonics even if I release it again. (gtk3 right now has a notable delay of like 1-2 seconds which makes me initially think it's just entirely broken before they come up)
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If I click a menu bar entry at this point to expand the submenu, it should have visible mnemonics as well. Requiring the user to press ALT again to bring it all up is just plain confusing.
Please note that's exactly like Mozilla Firefox does it on this system. So it's not that it'd be impossible or anything.
I tested this both with a minimal python 3.4/pygobject app and gedit and both have the same odd behavior, so it shouldn't be my test app's fault I hope.