People, I would like to solicit your opinions on something. A user has written me requesting a keyboard shortcut for the 'hide application' function that is available in the Application menu. According to Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, apps should publish this as cmd-H, and similarly, the 'minimize window' function as cmd-M. Here is what I wrote back to him just now:
The one issue is this: I personally have a grudge against apple's choice of cmd-M and cmd-H for minimize and hide; they are such plain and useful key combos that I feel app developers should be free to use them for main app functions. So I am inclined to assign a more obscure key combo, like ctrl-cmd-H, to that function instead of just cmd-H. What is your take on that? Do you feel that the Hide function should stick with the apple guidelines and be simply cmd-H, or would it be reasonable for me to assign something more obscure?
As it happens, a similar discussion happened only last week on the mailing list for my e-mail client of choice (PowerMail), and here is what I wrote at the time:
In my opinion, Apple has really screwed up with their recommendations for cmd-M = minimize to dock and cmd-H = hide application. I agree, they should have chosen more obscure shortcuts, laden with modifiers, to accomplish these tasks. Not only do I personally rarely ever have a desire to invoke the functions, but the "vanilla" keycodes are already a scarce resouce for app developers (there are only 26 letters of the roman alphabet after all, many of which are in use for ubiquitous functions like open, save, close, etc).
Personally, in applications I'm developing (http://www.doggiebox.com) I am deliberately ignoring the HIG in this regard. I will assign the main menu keys as I see fit, and I will only consider rearranging them to support Apple's weird ideals if I start to receive user feedback on the subject.
I actually posted that in response to another user, who was commenting on the latest PowerMail's implementing the cmd-M for minimize (which till then was assigned to a more useful function, in fact, "send mail"). As he so eloquently put it,
"Minimize Window" is misleading! Please rename it to "Suck to Dock" and change its shortcut to command+shift+option+control+Suck.
I had to have a hearty laugh in agreement on that one. Thoughts? -ben -- Ben Kennedy, chief magician zygoat creative technical services 613-228-3392 | 1-866-466-4628 http://www.zygoat.ca