[Idle-dev] Strange key for copying text

[Mats Wichmann]

At 03:32 PM 7/19/2001 +0300, Joonas Paalasmaa wrote:
 >When I am copying some text in Idle with Alt+W  Windows dropdown list is
 >unfolded, because it starts with W.
 >And it's really annoying.
 >Is this a bug or a desired feature?
 >I am running Python2.1 on RH7.0

I'm not sure it's really either, but it's certainly
unfortunate.  The keybinding issue on UNIX/Linux
machines is complicated by different users, and
different window manager styles, wanting different
keys for the same thing. For example, on most systems
the tty driver - the thing controlling your keyboard
input - has bindings for Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V so they're
not reasonable available for Copy and Paste, unlike
on MS-Windows.  The alternative choices are not ideal,
as you've found...

You can edit the keybindings yourself without too
much trouble for a "quick fix" (pick something else
for Copy), and it seems to me there was talk about
not basing the choice of keybindings purely on
operating system - i.e. allowing some user choice,
but I don't know if that's on the current TODO list.


By the way, it's also irritating, on Linux, that
the File, Debug and Windows menus stay up on selection,
but the Edit menu does not.  Is this some Tk
idosyncracy, or it is intentional?  Inconsistent
behavior like this is always troubling.

Mats