HackTheWeb Keystroke changes – W to E – a modest proposal.

The Rationale For The Changes:

Hopefully people are using the toolbar and so won’t notice the changes. 🙂

I have always hated disliked “D” for De-Width, while technically correct, it would be a lot easier for new users to understand, if it was “W” for Widen.

But the original code already uses the “W“ for Wider for another task (to increase the size of the red box).

So can I swap the key mappings around without causing existing users too much pain?

I think the answer is “possibly”. 🙂

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Keystroke changes (Part One)

HTW 1.3.10 – [Implemented 20.09.12]

So first up is to Enable “E” (same code as Wider).

Then put warnings on the use of W:

Please use the E for Expand instead. Comment here. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Put in a setTimeout to turn that warning off after 5 seconds.

This will enable me to test the waters and see if it will upset too many users.

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Keystroke changes (Part Two)

HTW 1.3.12 –  [Implemented 02.10.12]

Altered code so that W no longer widens selection.

Warning on the attempted use of “W” to now use “E” instead.

Turn that warning off after 10 seconds.

This will ensure everyone is using E and not W before we re-purpose the command.

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Keystroke changes (Part Three)

HTW 1.3.18 –  [Implemented 11.10.12]

Display Widen button in place of De-Width.

Accept both W and D for Widen/De-Width.

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I may be being too conservative about the changes.  Maybe I could do it all in one big bang… but I don’t want to alienate anyone so…. better to do it in stages.

Anyone interested can comment on this proposal below.

[Edit 10.10.12] Looking at the statistics: Out of a total of 3,957 Daily Users 3679 have had both warning 1 and 2.

OK thats good enough for me to implement the final part of the W to E proposal.

Date: Oct 9	1.3.12 = 3,217	1.3.10 = 269	1.3.14 = 193

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Old HackTheWeb.

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Keystrokes

• R    Remove – Delete the selected element.
• U    Undo – Undo the last “remove” or “isolate” command.
• D    De-Width – remove the width limit, allowing text to re-flow.
• I     Isolate – Remove everything except the selected element.
• L    Lily-White – White background.
• B    Black-on-White – Black text on white background.
• S    Save – Save to Stylish.

• W   Wider – increase the size of the red box.
• N    Narrow – decrease the size of the red box.
• H    Help
• Q    Quit

 

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Legacy

• P    Paste – Insert the last removed element before the current selected element.
• V    View Source – Shows the source code.
• J    JavaScript Source – Generates Javascript code.
• X    XPath – Show the XPath.
• K    Kill – Delete the selected element permanently (requires RIP extension).
• C    Colourize – Sets background to a random colour.

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New Proposed HackTheWeb.

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Keystrokes

• R    Remove – Delete the selected element.
• U    Undo – Undo the last “remove” or “isolate” command.
• W   Widen – remove the width limit, allowing text to re-flow.
• I     Isolate – Remove everything except the selected element.
• L    Lily-White – White background.
• B    Black-on-White – Black text on white background.
• S    Save – Save to Stylish.

• E    Expand – increase the size of the red box.
• N    Narrow – decrease the size of the red box.
• H    Help
• Q    Quit

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Legacy

• P    Paste – Insert the last removed element before the current selected element.
• V    View Source – Shows the source code.
• J    JavaScript Source – Generates Javascript code.
• X    XPath – Show the XPath.
• K    Kill – Delete the selected element permanently (requires RIP extension).
• C    Colourize – Sets background to a random colour.

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