Ron, I'm kicking myself for not having suggested this during the testing of
6.72 beta, but Scott's message made me realize that I hadn't done so, and I
wanted to get it to you before I lapse off into another senior
moment. Please don't take this as anything but the start of the list
(maybe) for the next rev.
After his superb effort at P40Q, his comment about accidentally getting
into S&P mode rang a real bell with me. At maybe 1/3 of the rate he was
generating, I have this problem too, and a little review suggests why.
Originally, ESC took you from S&P to CQ Mode, while TAB went from CQ to
S&P. The first of these caused problems, and led to Shift-TAB being
offered as an alternative to ESC, while the second remains. I find that
when I am running, am tired, and have some sort of a problem copying, I
tend unconsciously to revert to the use of the TAB key to move between
fields, a habit I've acquired from using other programs. If the CALL field
is empty, this will lead to getting into S&P mode accidentally.
I second Mark, N5OT's suggestion that another combination, perhaps Alt-TAB,
be permitted as an alternative to TAB in this situation, selectable as the
disabling of ESC to change into CQ mode now is. That way, both
program-mode changes will be "sailor-proofed."
Another thought -- many, many versions ago, Tree succumbed to my pleading
and made the Exchange field in S&P mode a different color from that in CQ
mode, as an aid to realizing when a mode change occurred. As I age, I seem
to have more and more trouble spotting even THAT obvious a signal. In
turn, that makes me wonder whether it might be possible to make the
whole-screen background color optionally switchable to a different color in
S&P vs CQ mode. Even I would have trouble missing that!
73, Pete N4ZR
Happy Holidays
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