I also found this bug by searching why spacebar shortcut stopped working in Ubuntu 18.04. And I also strongly disagree that this feature is counter intuitive. I use this shortcut for more than 20 years now (since dos versions of acdsee) and the lack of this shortcut means that I no longer can use image viewer in Gnome. Fortunately there are better choices anyway.
May favorite workflow with folders full of images is with right hand on the mouse and left hand: spacebar+esc to leave the viewer. Arrow keys are too far to right to be useful in such scenario. By the way, the counterpart for spacebar is 'backspace'. It much less convenient, but that's ok because you rarely go backwards with photos. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to eog in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1328670 Title: spacebar shortcut for "load next image in the folder" is a very bad idea Status in eog package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: In MOST graphics editing and viewing software, the spacebar usually allows you to move the document around with the mouse relative to the window. This is a very widespread convention and has been so for decades. In Image Viewer, you can do that by just clicking and dragging, so it's OK that the space bar is not needed for that, but it is a TERRIBLE idea to use it as a shortcut for something else. And even a worse idea is to use it as the shortcut for "load the next file in the folder". Nobody in his right mind would expect the space bar to do that. It's one of the most counterintuitive keyboard shortcuts I've ever seen. And when the set of shortcuts is not supposed to be intuitive (when there are a lot of functions for which to design a shortcut, it's ok to give up intuitiveness and have the user learn the shortcuts by looking at the menus), then it is common and good practice to avoid obvious and common keys (such as the space bar), that can be hit by mistake, for non-obvious tasks (such as load another file in the folder). Also, the key or key combination used for "load next file" should have an obvious counterpart for "load previous file". So, for example, the "pagedown" key would be a reasonable choice for "next", because you could then have "pageup" for "previous". Or perhaps the right arrow combined with ctrl, shift or something (not alone, because you expect that to move the image), because its obvious counterpart for previous would be the left arrow. The spacebar doesn't have any obvious "opposite" key so it's intrinsically a bad candidate as a shortcut for "next file". So there are at least 3 reasons why the space bar is a terrible keyboard shortcut for the action of loading the next file in the folder. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04 Package: eog 3.10.2-0ubuntu5 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-29.53-generic 3.13.11.2 Uname: Linux 3.13.0-29-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: Unity Date: Tue Jun 10 21:42:59 2014 InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (242 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424) SourcePackage: eog UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-05-24 (17 days ago) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/eog/+bug/1328670/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
