Two comments:

1) This is really old - March 2002

2) The idiot who designed this site broke my browser function. By using accesskey, he mapped my Alt-F to some link to his personal site. Dammit, Alt-F is the File menu on my browser. Don't fuck with that, Mr. Designer. It annoyed the living daylights out of me. I close my windows by Alt-F + C.

Posted by: Kung Pao on August 15, 2002 07:10 AM

 

Alt + F4 is even shorter way to close windows and I haven't run into any problems using it. Hope that may help you.

Posted by: Chris Harr on August 15, 2002 08:38 AM

 

Old? Sure. I think I even posted it before.

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 15, 2002 09:19 AM

 

Uncle Filbert has had touble of this sort before:

"Has anyone extracted the useful information from the gizmos and gadgets and produced a convenient text version of this document? I don't see the sense in mailing floppies around the world, and having to dig up a Mac and run a proprietary program, to read a simple report on a topic of interest."
11 Apr 1988 John Gilmore

Posted by: Mac on August 15, 2002 10:57 AM

 

That wasn't the point, Chris. Breaking a menu shortcut in my browser is just as bad as breaking my back button.

Suppose I want to save the page to my hard disk. I have to go to the File menu, don't I? I like my keyboard shortcut. When someone breaks that, it annoys me.

Breaking browser functions is bad design, whether it be the back button or any other menu.

Posted by: Kung Pao on August 15, 2002 11:14 AM

 

I was annoyed that the accessibility report PDF didn't link to the audio files. Granted, the sound files are a separate download, but it wouldn't be a big deal for the PDF to link to them. The audio icons in the PDF are just that, only icons. I expected them to be clickable, not to be forced to separately load and play the files on my own.

Posted by: Jack on August 15, 2002 02:00 PM

 

March 2002 is really old?

Posted by: Lydia on August 15, 2002 03:12 PM

 

March 2002 is ancient!

It's 4700 in China and 5763 if your Jewish Chinese.

Posted by: Jack on August 15, 2002 05:10 PM

 

I hang my head in apostrophe shame.

"Jewish Chinese" could be said better too.

Posted by: Jack on August 15, 2002 07:27 PM

 

Jack, was "your" a pargh? You should confess if that is the case. We want to push the pargh meme.

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 15, 2002 08:07 PM

 

I skimmed through that thread when it started and I didn't get the reference and I didn't want to devote any brain cells toward paying enough attention to figure it out.

Worse, I didn't invent that piece of slang, so I have no financial interest in seeing it continue.

Create a "Viewer's Guide" with succinct explanations of all of WebWord's idiosyncrasies.

Posted by: Jack on August 16, 2002 05:47 PM

 

accesskey keystroke collisions are unavoidable if you use any characters other than numerals or punctuation, which I sometimes but usually do not do. accesskey assignments, by convention, override operating-system conventions.

The difference? A mobility-impaired person has to laboriously move the focus cursor to the link in question-- versus simply typing the accesskey (itself a difficult task in typical browsers). The reader incensed at a remapping of an existing key can simply pull down the menu.

However, a reasonable case can be made here. I suppose we have lost our chance to enjoy a "reasonable" case.

Posted by: Joe Clark on August 19, 2002 08:25 AM