[SVN] Discoverability. Single global shortcut?

[thomas Aylott]

Discoverability.

We really need to work on discoverability.
It's hard to figure out what all you can do with TextMate.
Especially for noobies.

Bundles like Subversion work wonderfully because all of the commands  
share a single shortcut. It's easy to find out what the Subversion  
bundle is capable of because it's all right there in that list.

Bundles like Rails have much worse discoverability. There is a LOT of  
power there. But the current way to discover the capabilities are sub- 
optimal.

I want almost all of the items in each bundle to be linked to a  
single shortcut (as in the Subversion bundle). I think it is also an  
excellent idea for each item to have a good tab trigger.

The Rails bundle, for instance, has a whole slew of great stuff with  
no shortcut at all. It wouldn't hurt anything to give them all the  
same shortcut.

So, to summarize:

* Global shortcut per bundle
* Unique tab trigger per item
* Share tab trigger with extremely similar items only
* Unique shortcut for only a few important commands
* Make sure the tab trigger text is in the name of each item (in parens)

Major benefits are:
* Better discoverability. Single shortcut to remember per bundle.
* Quicker activation with a smaller set of context sensitive options.
* Easier to learn the tab triggers

So if nobody has any objections, I'm going to start by giving a  
global shortcut to all the items in the Rails bundle that don't  
already have shortcuts.

Speak now or rollback my changes later. haha! >:)

— Always a pleasure. Discoverability.

We really need to work on discoverability.
It's hard to figure out what all you can do with TextMate.
Especially for noobies.

Bundles like Subversion work wonderfully because all of the commands  
share a single shortcut. It's easy to find out what the Subversion  
bundle is capable of because it's all right there in that list.
(brilliant idea btw. Creating a list on trigger collision)

Bundles like Rails have much worse discoverability. There is a LOT of  
power there. But the current way to discover the capabilities are sub- 
optimal.

I want almost all of the items in each bundle to be linked to a  
single shortcut (as in the Subversion bundle). I think it is also an  
excellent idea for each item to have a good tab trigger.

The Rails bundle, for instance, has a whole slew of great stuff with  
no shortcut at all. It wouldn't hurt anything to give them all the  
same shortcut.

So, to summarize:

* Global shortcut per bundle
* Unique tab trigger per item
* Share tab trigger with extremely similar items only
* Unique shortcut for only a few important commands
* Make sure the tab trigger text is in the name of each item (in parens)

Major benefits are:
* Better discoverability. Single shortcut to remember per bundle.
* Quicker activation with a smaller set of context sensitive options.
* Easier to learn the tab triggers

So if nobody has any objections, I'm going to start by giving a  
global shortcut to all the items in the Rails bundle that don't  
already have shortcuts.


Any ideas on what the global shortcut should be?
Should it be unique per bundle or global across all bundles?
Scope precedence should give it good context sensitivity either way.

I was thinking of ctrl-shift-etc for a global shortcut. I'm currently  
using ctrl-opt-esc for all my personal stuff.


Speak now or rollback my changes later. haha! >:)

— Always a pleasure.
subtleGradient / tAylott



  — tAy,. …