New Boot Loader Menu

[John Baldwin]

On Tuesday, October 09, 2012 2:41:29 pm Devin Teske wrote:
> 
> On Oct 9, 2012, at 11:18 AM, John Baldwin wrote:
> 
> > On Tuesday, October 09, 2012 11:25:19 am Devin Teske wrote:
> >> …Re-adding the list… (good point)
> >> 
> >> On Oct 9, 2012, at 8:15 AM, Garrett Cooper wrote:
> >> 
> >>> On Tue, Oct 9, 2012 at 8:05 AM, Devin Teske <devin.teske at fisglobal.com> 
wrote:
> >>>> …Re-adding the list…
> >>>> 
> >>>> On Oct 8, 2012, at 12:42 PM, olli hauer wrote:
> >>>> 
> >>>>> ...
> >>>>> 
> >>>>>> You'll also get zero argument out of me that putting "Delete" on-
screen 
> > is not only to-be-avoided for the opposing situation (that some keyboards 
may 
> > not have a "Delete" but instead "Backspace") but indeed "Delete" is worse 
> > because the implied connotation associated with the "Delete" key 
(_someone_ 
> > might be confused into thinking "Delete" will purge the menu from memory).
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>> I will play with keycodes.
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>> Just be aware that currently left arrow CANNOT work. That is a bad 
> > suggestion (read why below).
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>> In Forth, I'm using the "key" primitive which -- rather unfortunately 
> > -- produces a zero for "left-arrow", "right-arrow", "up-arrow", "down-
arrow", 
> > "F1", "F2", "F3", "F4", "F5", "F6", "F7", "F8", "F9", and "F10" (note: it 
> > doesn't catch "F11", "F12", "F13", "F14", "F15", or "F16").
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>> So all those key options are right-out when it comes to "using them 
> > instead of Backspace" (I simply can't identify in the loader when those 
keys 
> > are pressed).
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> ...
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> will the space key work for a general back to or up one entry?
> >>>>> I suspect the space bar has the same keycode on all platforms 
> > (intel/appel/ppc/sparc ...)
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> Anyway nice work :)
> >>>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> By golly, I think olli is on to something here!
> >>>> 
> >>>> What does everybody think about space?
> >>>> 
> >>>> I like it because it's a NICE BIG TARGET (and it's not used by anything 
else).
> >>> 
> >>> It was used once upon a time to pause the bootloader countdown…
> >> 
> >> Well… that hasn't *really* been true since r222417 (16+ months ago).
> > 
> > Yes, you completely destroyed POLA for users used to hitting various keys
> > to catch the boot loader before it passed by over remote KVMs.
> 
> Wait, what?
> 
> I did no such thing.
> 
> If you had users mashing random keys during the menu, the old functionality 
was to keep the timer rolling while they mashed away.

No, not random keys.  Keys like '6' to escape to the loader prompt or '4' to 
boot into single user.

It's water under the bridge as far as the new menu in 9.0 (and I thought that 
in that instance renumbering everything might be worth it to make the keys 
more logical as a one-time hit), but gratuitously changing the mappings of 
what specific keys mean is not helpful to users, and based on your reply, you 
don't get that at all.  It is the lack of empathy for other use cases that 
most worries me. :(

-- 
John Baldwin