Re: q for quit in plot windows

[Ethan A M. <merritt@u.washington.edu>]

On Thursday 31 May 2007 02:24, Petr Mikulik wrote:
> >   q            * close this X11 plot window
> > 
> > I'm assuming that by the use of term->(function) the mouse/keyboard interface is
> > meant to be very general and not restricted to X11.  Is that right, i.e., maybe
> > it can be used on a different window environment and all the bindings behave the
> > 
> > 1) Why use the word X11 in the documentation?  (Would the user care?)
> 
> q hotkey does not work on OS/2 and Windows (= not implemented)
> It works on x11 and wxt.

For some value of "works".
I think it was a design mistake to treat 'q' and ' ' as special-case keys,
because it seriously interferes with implementing a general hot-key/bind
interface.  For instance, suppose you want to allow the user to type in plot
titles interactively (e.g. 'mouselabels.dem').  How do you explain to 
the user that his labels can contain any character except 'q' or ' '?

You can disable 'q' in x11 by shifting the magic key to 'ctrl-q' instead:
   gnuplot*ctrlq:  on

But this is awkward, since it needs to be done externally.
Also it doesn't work for the wxt terminal.

I would favor getting rid of the 'q' and ' ' hard-wired hotkeys, or
at least make them default bindings that can be turned off by a script.

> > 4) How does one change bindings for the current builtin-xxxxxx?
> 
> By the usual bind command.

Except that you can't bypass 'q' or ' ' this way.
IMHO this is a serious bug or design flaw.


-- 
Ethan A Merritt
Biomolecular Structure Center
University of Washington, Seattle 98195-7742