[isabelle-dev] Preferences on Mac OS X

[Andrew Boyton]

The fact that Isabelle/jEdit doesn't obey the standard OS X keybindings is frustrating but sadly typical for a Java application. For a Mac application I expect Command+, to bring up the preferences, but I also expect the preferences to be in the menu "jEdit -> Preferences", like every other Mac application. I do accept though that Java applications are rarely good citizens on any platform, and so am not surprised.

As for your question Larry, the lack of standard Mac keybindings can be alleviated by re-enabling the option key, and changing adding the following lines in a new file in isabelle/src/Tools/jEdit/dist/startup (I made one called Option.bsh) [1]:

Debug.ALT_KEY_PRESSED_DISABLED = false;
Debug.ALTERNATIVE_DISPATCHER = false;

and then, in jEdit -> Utilities -> Options… set the following:

  *   Appearance -> Swing look & feel: -> Mac OS X
  *   Shortcuts -> Choose keymap -> Mac OS X

Whilst this doesn't fix all the keybindings, but it helps. It does fix the cursor movement to be standard though, which goes a long way. This should be the standard settings on Isabelle/jEdit on a Mac IMHO.

Personally, I'd prefer if Command+F was used for incremental search, as it's the one you generally use more than "Find". Either way, I find that switching between Isabelle/jEdit and other text editors highly distracting as I get used to Command+, being used for search, and then it bringing up Preferences on every other program. Making Isabelle/jEdit a better OS X citizen goes a long way for making it nicer for people like myself to use. I understand that this makes it harder for people who regularly move between platforms though.

Kind regards
Andrew


[1]: This is based on information from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2297727/jedit-mac-os-keyboard-behaviour but I've found Isabelle (or something, I'm yet to work out what) often reverts changes I make to startup.bsh, so I've found making a new file in the same directory safer.



On 25/09/2013, at 8:05 AM, Lawrence Paulson <lp15 at cam.ac.uk<mailto:lp15 at cam.ac.uk>> wrote:

Never tried using this with jEdit.

I won't mind having the Mac cursor-movement keyboard shortcuts.

Larry

On 24 Sep 2013, at 22:43, Makarius <makarius at sketis.net<mailto:makarius at sketis.net>> wrote:

How important is the canonical key sequence "COMMAND comma" as defined by Apple?

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