#188 Consistent default keybord shortcut in dialogs

[lepetitmartien]

In all the screen dialogs, the default button is non consistant. Up to 0.9.x there wasn't one or usually it was the more practical to play (like build in the city to be built dialog). In 0.11.x, either we don't have as before a default button, or it's alway "opposed" to game play (like abort instead of doing things).

• A default button should be assigned to enter or space in each dialog, not all have one.
• The others should be accessible by simple shortcuts (letter, arrow…)
• The choice of the default should be consistant and game oriented (we don't bring up dialogs not to do things, The usual behaviour is learned fast anyway)
  This to win in game speed as the latest versions are "clickodroms" due to some choices by defaults.

[Mike Pope]

In all the screen dialogs, the default button is non consistant.

General complaints like this rarely provoke any action. If you can document any specific inconsistencies please do. That is far more likely to be fixed.

Internally, for all the dialogs where a choice between various buttons is required, or where text input is required, we use the Java JDialog class and call a standard Java routine that lays out the buttons in accordance with the operating system defaults. FreeCol has no actual "assign space to the OK-button" code in these cases, that is done by default deep in the Java libraries. However there are some very simple cases where no choice is made, and a few very complex cases (e.g. the colony panel) that use the JPanel class --- these may be the source of the inconsistency you are seeing.

A default button should be assigned to enter or space in each dialog,

For the JDialog cases, either should work AFAIK.

not all have one.

A list of exceptions would be helpful.

The others should be accessible by simple shortcuts

There is a long standing bug BR#1824 that covers this. Once again, I suspect the reason no one has ever shown any interest in working on it is the generality of the complaint, and the best way to encourage action would be to add a list of specific problems (e.g. "Foo dialog has no key board shortcut for Bar button") to that bug report.

we don't bring up dialogs not to do things,

You assume that everyone is a skilled player who knows what they are doing and never makes typing errors. I agree that there are a lot of dialogs where it is quicker for the "OK" button to be the default, but there are several dialogs where you definitely do not want the default to be "OK", because it is a big decision that can not be reversed. So, if we are going to be consistent we have to choose the default choice to be the "cancel" option. This was done in response to several user complaints that "it is too easy to do * by accident" in the forums and trackers, and is clearly an area where we just can not please everyone.