Hi John,
John Denker wrote:
> There are a few aircraft functions that need to be bound to
> a single key for immediate access. The vast majority, however,
> can be bound to a multi-key sequence without causing a problem.
> I definitely don't need a single key for engaging the starter
> or setting the parking brake.
>
> An example of how such a language could be constructed can
> be found here:
> http://www.av8n.com/fly/fgfs/keys.txt
>
> If done right, such a language would be easier to learn,
> easier to remember, easier to use, and vastly more expressive
> than what we've got now.
That's a really interesting idea, and I like your proposed language.
My main comment would be that I'm not sure we really _need_ the expressiveness
of a language. I think that off-loading most of the simulation functions to the
menu system will leave us plenty of keyboard space for aircraft control.
Leaving that aside, there are a couple of issues I can see with moving to a
language-based mapping:
1) I'm pretty sure that implementing this will require quite a change to the
input code, as we'll need a proper input parser rather than the simple keyboard
mapping we currently use (unless we want to write reams of Nasal code). I don't
know how easy this would be, as we'd want it to be compatible with the property
tree and Nasal code. Melchior: you're the expert on this - what's your view?
2) While I think it might be easier to learn from scratch, most of our users
are coming to the system with some prior knowledge of games, and MSFS, where
there is a more traditional one-to-one keyboard mapping. Gaving a completely
new paradigm for keyboard input to learn is going to go against the usability
principle of giving the user what they expect.
3) This is a purely selfish PoV, merely because I'll have to do the work, but
documenting this in The Manual is going to be very hard, and require updating
almost the entire text with the new key codes, and an entirely new section
describing the paradigm.
Of course, we could have both a one-to-one mapping and a language-based mapping
available, with a toggle on the menu system.
Your idea has encouraged me to re-read my HCI textbook for inspiration and
insight. I'll report back if I find anything of interest.
-Stuart
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