Hot keys (and menu shortcuts) are *keys*, not characters. These should be
implemented using key codes, not ASCII, Unicode or any other *character*
codes .
So if an application has Ö as an hot key, it should trigger when it receives
the code of the *key* that is labeled "Ö". It doesn't matter if this key,
when used to type text, sends 1, 2 or 10 characters: it is nevertheless a
single key press (i.e. a single event).
If an application receives commands as characters, these should not be
called "hot keys", but something else. And these have different
implications, including the ones you are discussing.
Whether to localize hot keys or not is a choice that should be made case by
case: any generalization is probably a loosing approach.
I understand your point about not localizing some elements. Some parts of
applications (e.g. internal error messages) are designed more to help the
hot-line support team than the end-users themselves, so it may be wise to
leave them in a language that is understood by the supporting team.
I hate when they send me an errol log file in Thai and I have to call the
customer to ask them, what *my* messages mean!
Regards. Marco
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Adrian Havill [SMTP:havill@turbolinux.co.jp]
> Sent: 1999 October 05, Tuesday 19.04
> To: Unicode List
> Subject: Re: Combining Marks and Keyboard Input on GUI systems (was:
> Re: A basic question on encoding Latin characters)
>
> > > Even in the GUI world, as many have pointed out already, we commonly
> see
> > > single-letter shortcuts in dropdown menus. Suppose a German
> application
> > > has:
> > >
> > > [Ö]ffnen
> > > [O]rdnen
>
> Aren't you not supposed to localize/internationalize the hot-keys? If you
> did, you would break keyboard macro short-cut programs (they would have to
> have a localized version of the macro file for each language).
>
> As a person that's done support for international (or, "internationally
> lost") users-- i.e. English speakers that can't read Japanese and are
> using
> a Japanese app or vice versa, this is also a blessing as you can guide
> someone over the phone on how to set their software via the hotkeys (even
> if
> they can't read the setting screen).
>
> I believe there's some other issues (accessibility? for those that need to
> use the hot-keys, you don't want to complicate the input (e.g. the use of
> dead keys or an IME)), which is why hotkeys are not I18Nized/L10Nized.
>
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