0000339: Accessibility - Switching keyboard focus between sections - OpenMPT Issue Tracker

ID	Project	Category	View Status	Date Submitted	Last Update

0000339	OpenMPT	Feature Request	public	2013-01-20 15:08	2021-09-23 13:18

Reporter	Diamond	Assigned To
Priority	normal	Severity	minor	Reproducibility	N/A
Status	closed	Resolution	duplicate
Platform	x86	OS	Windows	OS Version	7
Product Version	OpenMPT 1.21.01.* (old testing)

Summary	0000339: Accessibility - Switching keyboard focus between sections
Description	Here's another accessibility related request which hopefully won't be too much trouble to implement. Most of the main tabs in OpenMPT have a couple of primary sections. For example, in the "General" tab there's the top part of the screen which contains controls for setting the initial tempo, global volume, and so on. The bottom contains controls for managing VSTs and channel settings. In the "Sample" and "Instrument" tabs, you have the section with most of the primary controls and the section which allows playing from the PC keyboard. For sighted users switching focus between these sections is fairly simple and straight forward. For me it is certainly possible, but definitely less convenient. For me it requires a lot of cursoring around the screen and simulated mouse clicks using the virtual cursor from my screen reading software. It would be nice to have assignable shortcut keys to simplify switching keyboard focus between these sections. Theoretically you could accomplish this with only two shortcuts since the tabs where this is relevant for the most part have only two primary sections. Obviously where the focus is placed would depend on the currently selected tab. I know that there are a few other parts of the screen which wouldn't be simple or convenient to set up this kind of access for, but the examples I gave are really the ones that I care about the most.
Tags	No tags attached.

Has the bug occurred in previous versions?
Tested code revision (in case you know it)

harbinger 2013-01-22 14:18 reporter ~0001060	I second this and have wanted this a long time ago (though i don't think i made an official FR). When i looked at the code back then, however, i noticed the structure made each section rather "invisible" to another. I'm sure Jojo (or Relabs) is smart enough to come up with a way, but he'll have to break down the structure to do so, and build it up again. If he does, he may lose a lot of functionality. It would be the same as taking out an engine to apply a nitro canister so you can get turbo thrust (a la Mad Max), not exactly an overhaul but you have to work on a lot of little parts to implement it. So +1 from me, just don't expect too much, unless one of our devs has the free time AND the inspiration AND can quickly come up with a solid plan to put into code...

Diamond 2013-01-22 14:39 reporter ~0001062	Well I won't trivialize the amount of work required to add any particular feature as I know developers hate that and rightfully so, but I think what I'm requesting should be a matter of adding a couple of shortcut keys to switch keyboard focus between sections of the currently selected tab. I won't argue how difficult that might or might not be to implement, but I can't imagine that it should require a major restructuring of the code. Whether Jojo has the time or inclination to work on this currently is of course a different story.

harbinger 2013-01-22 14:44 reporter ~0001064	Agreed. And i hope it's that easy, and my prism was one of inexperience and "overpragmatism," as it were...

Diamond 2013-01-22 17:19 reporter ~0001071	No problem. Mind you, I'm sort of surprised that a sighted user would even care very much about a feature like this.

harbinger 2013-01-25 17:57 reporter ~0001074	I wouldn't mind if MPT (or any software) was completely mouse-driven or completely keyboard-driven, but switching between the two, wastes a second or two every time i hafta do it. And time is an inspiration killer; if i don't hurry and get my ideas recorded somehow, i often lose little nuances that give it its finer quality. I would hate to have inspiration flooding my brain and unable to see enough to get it down before i lost little bits of it. So hats off to ya for making a go of it...

Saga Musix 2021-09-23 13:18 administrator ~0004879	A keyboard shortcut for doing this has recently been implemented through issue 0001367.

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
2013-01-20 15:08	Diamond	New Issue
2013-01-22 14:18	harbinger	Note Added: 0001060
2013-01-22 14:39	Diamond	Note Added: 0001062
2013-01-22 14:44	harbinger	Note Added: 0001064
2013-01-22 17:19	Diamond	Note Added: 0001071
2013-01-25 17:57	harbinger	Note Added: 0001074
2021-09-23 13:18	Saga Musix	Note Added: 0004879
2021-09-23 13:18	Saga Musix	Status	new => closed
2021-09-23 13:18	Saga Musix	Resolution	open => duplicate
2021-09-23 13:18	Saga Musix	Relationship added	duplicate of 0001367