Re: [GD-Windows] disabling windows keys

[Rich <leg...@xm...>]

In article <002701c1b371$6b163b60$0101a8c0@HOOKDELL220>,
    Brian Hook <bri...@py...>  writes:

> - when alt and tab may be used as a key combination in the game.  cf.
> Quake.  And if you want to argue that this is "bad UI design", to
> paraphrase you -- if the user wants to do something, who are we to say
> "No, alt + tab is an invalid key combination".

I think there is a difference between disabling Alt+Tab because the
user has controls mapped to that configuration and the general issue
of disabling alt+tab because programmers don't want to handle lost
devices.  99.999% of the time I see people asking how to disable task
switching its for the latter reason, not the former.  The latter is
-not- an example of the user asking for something, its the programmer
forcing something on the user because they appear to be too lazy to
program the correct solution.

> - "games" where the keyboard needs to be "locked down" because you have
> an 18 month old toddler banging on keys to see pretty lights happen on
> the monitor

Has it yet been established that this is the case here?  This comes up
all the time in DirectX discussion forums.  A certain amount of
laziness is good in a programmer, but when the laziness leads to the
programmer trying to stop the user from doing normal things because
they can't handle it properly that is just shoddy programming IMO.
The world already has enough crappy programs, we should be focusing on
giving users GREAT programs.
--
Ask me about my upcoming book on Direct3D from Addison-Wesley!
  Direct3D Book <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/>
    Don't Support Spammers!  Boycott Fractal Painter 7!
     <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/spammers.html>