Handling Enter key presses on Buttons in JavaFX

Tue Jun 7 23:33:23 UTC 2016

On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 7:08 PM, Michael Berry <berry120 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 7 June 2016 at 23:57, Tomas Mikula <tomas.mikula at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 6:48 PM, Michael Berry <berry120 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 7 June 2016 at 23:30, Tomas Mikula <tomas.mikula at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 6:10 PM, Michael Berry <berry120 at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 7 June 2016 at 23:04, Tomas Mikula <tomas.mikula at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> What about forgetting the whole notion of a "default button" and the
>>>>>> only
>>>>>> effect of setting the default property to true being that the button
>>>>>> will
>>>>>> start as focused?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So I add a question:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 3) Would anyone miss the "default button"?
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Afraid I would - I find the visual difference of the default button
>>>>> rather useful.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The visual difference is also what is confusing when there is also a
>>>> focused button. Maybe they should then lose its visual distinction when a
>>>> different button is focused (at least in Jonathan's point 2) - non-OS
>>>> X platforms).
>>>>
>>>
>>> Perhaps this is just a pure difference of opinion - I find the visual
>>> distinction helpful because it provides a cue (from a UX perspective) as to
>>> which button the user can be expected to hit in "normal" behaviour. This,
>>> in my mind, is very different from the (much more subtle) cue that shows
>>> the currently focused UI component.
>>>
>>
>> If Jonathan's plan is executed:
>>
>> > 2) On non-OS X platforms, we change the behavior so that Enter (and
>> Space) will fire the _focused_ key, if one is focused.
>>
>> then any visual cues on the "default" button are misleading (while a
>> different button is focused, that is), since it will not be triggered on
>> either Enter or Space.
>>
>
> Not necessarily. You're assuming (rightly or wrongly) that the visual cue
> here creates the expectation that a particular key, either enter or space,
> should activate it.
>

That was my assumption, indeed. And I wonder how many users make the same
assumption.

>
> In my case, the visual cue simply indicates that it is the preferred,
> default, or most common option for a user to press, without implying a
> relation to any particular hotkey.
>
>
>>
>> Tomas
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Tomas
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> While it would be possible to just use CSS to style it differently,
>>>>> this (in my mind) would be a step backwards (and that's before the issues
>>>>> that would arise from a backwards-compatibility standpoint due to removing
>>>>> an existing property.)
>>>>>
>>>>> Michael
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Tomas
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 5:47 PM, Jonathan Giles <
>>>>>> jonathan.giles at oracle.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> > Hi all,
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > One thing I've been looking into recently is the issue of what the
>>>>>> Enter
>>>>>> > key should do when it is pushed with regards to buttons in a UI
>>>>>> where one
>>>>>> > of those buttons is a 'default' button. There are number of Jira
>>>>>> issues on
>>>>>> > this topic, and I wanted to poll the community to understand its
>>>>>> opinions.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > The current situation is that the Enter key does not fire the
>>>>>> focused
>>>>>> > Button. The Enter key is reserved for firing the 'default' Button
>>>>>> in the UI
>>>>>> > (i.e. if someone has created a Button instance with the default
>>>>>> property
>>>>>> > set to true). A default button is rendered slightly differently (in
>>>>>> Modena
>>>>>> > it is blue for example). To fire the focused Button, the user must
>>>>>> press
>>>>>> > the Space key.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Tom Schindl filed a bug (JDK-8139510) that is a good example of the
>>>>>> > 'problem' this creates. In the bug report, a dialog is shown to the
>>>>>> user.
>>>>>> > In the dialog is an OK button and a Cancel button. The OK button
>>>>>> has been
>>>>>> > made the 'default' button. Regardless of which button has focus,
>>>>>> the Enter
>>>>>> > key always fires the OK button. The only way to fire the Cancel
>>>>>> button is
>>>>>> > via the Space key. This can be very confusing for users who have
>>>>>> tabbed
>>>>>> > specifically to the 'Cancel' button and then pressed the Enter key,
>>>>>> only to
>>>>>> > find they unwittingly fired the 'OK' action.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > To me this has always been a little counter-intuitive, because of my
>>>>>> > heritage as a long-time Windows user. I believe Linux is much the
>>>>>> same as
>>>>>> > Windows. For others who grew up on Mac, I'm less sure on what
>>>>>> people expect
>>>>>> > (but it seems to be that the Enter key fires the default button,
>>>>>> not the
>>>>>> > focused button, i.e. JavaFX current behavior matches what is
>>>>>> expected on OS
>>>>>> > X).
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > What I'm proposing we do is to change the behavior as follows:
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > 1) On OS X we do not change behavior at all - we keep the current
>>>>>> 'Enter
>>>>>> > means default' and 'Space means focus' semantics.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > 2) On non-OS X platforms, we change the behavior so that Enter (and
>>>>>> Space)
>>>>>> > will fire the _focused_ key, if one is focused. If no Button is
>>>>>> focused
>>>>>> > (e.g. focus is in a TextField, etc), then Enter will work as it
>>>>>> currently
>>>>>> > does and fire the default button, if one is specified. In short,
>>>>>> default
>>>>>> > buttons will still be rendered blue to hint to the user that they
>>>>>> are the
>>>>>> > default button, but they will be less prevalently fired by Enter key
>>>>>> > presses - only when they also have focus.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > The two questions that I have are:
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > 1) Will this confuse users when there is a behavior change (and
>>>>>> > presumably, this change will be made in JDK 9 and not backported to
>>>>>> JDK 8).
>>>>>> > If it will confuse users, is it still the right thing to do?
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > 2) Do we want to have different behaviors for OS X and non-OS X?
>>>>>> I'm a
>>>>>> > newly inducted member into the cult of Mac, and I don't yet have
>>>>>> all my
>>>>>> > bearings sorted out, so I don't have a strong opinion here.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated.
>>>>>> > -- Jonathan
>>>>>> >
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> Michael
>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Thanks,
>
> Michael
>