#29 Usability: The default Fullscreen key is problematic

[Martin Oberhuber]

When I used chicken for the first time and switched into fullscreen, I couldn't get out of fullscreen any more. Had to kill my remote VNC server to make the whole Mac usable again ! Turns out I had just not seen the backquote in the dialog announcing fullscreen.

Please, use a "standard" shortcut for fullscreen by default, eg Ctrl-Cmd-F (used in Microsoft Remote Desktop, Apple's own Screen Sharing as well as Virtualbox).

I like the many configuration options in Chicken, and it seems to be quite fast, but the following key issues make it currently unusable for me:

• Lack of Retina support - remote screens appear way too big, unusable on MBP 13" Retina!
• Frequent disconnects with "unknown message type 5"!
• Screen artifacts when scrolling a remote display

I also can't use Apple's own Screen Sharing because it hangs on remote xterm (see "screen sharing to Linux : xterm problem" on Mac Support pages). Trying RealVNC Viewer for now, but I'd really prefer supporting a Free Open Source project like Chicken instead...

[dustinac]

You can change the fullscreen command to whatever you want. Go to Preferences, choose the Keyboard tab, and then either the Windowed Connection or Fullscreen Connection. Click the triangle to open up the items from the Window menu, and you can click on the shortcut for Fullscreen Mode and set it to Ctrl-Cmd-F, if you prefer. Note that there are separate settings for Windowed Connection (i.e. getting into fullscreen mode) and for Fullscreen Connection (getting out of fullscreen mode).

As you said, Chicken has many configuration options, but you seem to have missed this one.

As for why the default is so obscure, the reason is that Chicken's philosophy is that as much as possible, every keystroke is not interpreted locally, but sent to the remote computer. The one exception is that the only way to get out of fullscreen mode has to be a keystroke, but that's chosen to be as unlikely as possible to conflict with what you'd want to send to the remote computer.

There are separate tickets for the other issues you bring up, so I'm closing this one.

[Martin Oberhuber]

Hello Dustinac,

many thanks for taking the time for an elaborate answer ! But I'm afraid you mis-read my point. I know I can configure whatever key I want. My report was about usability : what should the initial key be to avoid user frustration.

I understand the Chicken philosophy around non-intrusive keys. But wouldn't it still make sense using a standard key by default, which most other screen sharing apps also use ? In case anyone really has a conflict with Shift+Cmd+F they could still change their key to something different. The default fullscreen key doesn't seem to be the right place to differentiate against other apps.

The issue is severe since Chicken also doesn't have a UI menu which would appear by moving the mouse to the very top of the fullscreen. I was really locked up completely. In the worst case that could even mean loss of data (when I don't have a different way canceling the connection and would reboot my Mac to get out of the lock).

I'll not start a flame war here ... I'm just trying to help. For me personally, the issue is not relevant any more since I've decided to use different apps. But being engaged in Open Source myself, I care about the Community and try to provide input for making the Chicken better.

Thanks!
Martin