[platform-ui-dev] What is being done in 3.0 to clean up accelerator keys

[Bob Foster <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>]

In 2.1 and AFAIK right through M6, an editor writer (me) has a heck of a 
time trying to get through the accelerator key briar patch. Specifically,

- The org.eclipse.ui.editorActions way of specifying accelerator keys 
seems to have been orphaned (without being deprecated). Keys assigned in 
that way just don't work if there is any conflict with another key 
assignment, and when they do work don't participate in the user dialogs 
for reassigning, enabling, etc. accelerator keys.

- It seems to be impossible for an editor to remap an accelerator key 
defined by another plug-in, like the Navigate > Open Declaration (F3) 
mapping done by Java. You can receive the action, but nothing I have 
found will make the accelerator key work outside of Java.

- Several plug-ins (Java is the worst offender) grab global accelerator 
key assignments, effectively removing them from the pool available to 
other plug-ins.

- The number of accelerator keys land-grabbed by Eclipse continues to 
grow at an alarming pace. Soon there will be no keys at all left over 
for new plug-ins to use.

Accelerator keys have historically been the worst-documented, 
most-churned area of Eclipse. Could we please have:

- Eclipse stop grabbing global accelerator keys.
- Contextual accelerator key assignment (when user is in a particular 
editor/view/perspective) instead of the current all-too-global scheme.

This is becoming a major usability issue. How is 3.0 going to resolve it?

Respectfully,

Bob Foster
http://xmlbuddy.com/