[Prime] Suggestion for a few easy to implement usability enhancements

[matthiaspaul]

(09-08-2015 02:11 AM)eried Wrote:  

(09-07-2015 11:04 PM)matthiaspaul Wrote:  - The "<x|" button deletes the character to the left of the cursor in the input line. If there are no more characters left left of the cursor, pressing the button will have no function at present. The functionality could be improved by switching the function of the button to the behaviour of "DEL" under this condition, that is, start to delete the character to the right of the cursor (if there is any).
Similar, but less commonly used, the shifted function of the "<x|" button ("DEL") should start to delete characters to the left of the cursor, if there are no more characters left to the right of the cursor.
So, basically, whenever the "deleting" cursor hits the corresponding edge of the input line, its deletion direction should be reversed until the input line is empty. This would make it easier to edit the input line regardless of cursor position without affecting existing functionality.

- If the "<x|" key is pressed (shifted or normal) while the input line is completely empty already, it should recall previous contents of the input line and place the cursor at the end of that line (similar to what the HP 30b does in this situation). Again, this would not affect existing functionality at all, just extend behaviour.

In my opinion this seems quite annoying and unnatural.

Not in mine. When I hit a key, I usually expect a function, and hitting "the key to delete characters" in a situation where the only characters left to delete are positioned on the right side of the cursor, I would not find it unnatural if it started to delete them rather than doing nothing at all. In fact, I find it annoying that you will have to press two keys to delete those characters (either "cursor right"+"backspace" or "shift"+"delete").

Quote:Think of an user cleaning the first line of a paragraph, you don't usually count the chars you have to delete, just tap backspace several times (and this would end gobbling chars in front?, bad design...)

I see the problem. While in an ideal world there should be a special function to "delete up to the beginning", there aren't enough keys (or modifiers) on a calculator for this. But the problem you describe is specific to typematic mode, so my suggestion could be narrowed down to not affect typematic mode and only work for individual keypresses.

Greetings,

Matthias