[WriteLog] Re: issues--HOME key

[Ian White, G3SEK]

Wayne wrote:

>Experience tells me not to jump into changes without first being sure 
>that the request is really coming from the majority and not a vocal 
>minority--it is even more painful to have new releases change the 
>behavior back after protests with a new one.
>
>So I am going to sit on this one for a bit

That's very wise, because Wayne knows he has to keep two quite different 
groups of users happy.

People who have migrated to WL from DOS contest software want to keep 
the keyboard shortcuts they already know. (Doesn't *everybody* know that 
Crtl-Alt-footswitch-Z = Start Coffee Maker?)

But as WL continues to take over the world, there will be more and more 
new contesters who don't have those burned-in reflexes. To them, these 
so-called "shortcuts" are arbitrary and confusing. They want WL to 
behave as much as possible like a standard Windows program - which means 
that keys like Tab, Shift-Tab, Home and End are definitely *not* up for 
grabs.

Wayne has to squeeze WL's QSO automation into the gaps between those 
conflicting demands, and he's done a very good job. WL automatically 
does the right, smart thing in almost every situation, and it's so 
smooth, we may not even notice it.

However, there are still a few places where we frequently have to do 
things manually, which WL could maybe do for us...

The following are a few *suggestions* for discussion. Not everybody will 
need these facilities, and some will actively not want them, so I think 
they should all be *options*.

The whole objective is to avoid wasting keystrokes, and to avoid jumping 
too often between the keyboard, mouse and rig.

1. Fast restart: automatically reopen the last-used logfile and place 
focus in Callsign entry field - with no hands.

2. Return focus to Callsign entry field after a certain time of 
keyboard/mouse inactivity (already under discussion).

The next group of suggestions are about smarter support for swapping 
between S&P and Running:

3. Automatically detect when Running (e.g. if the last >3 QSOs were all 
on the same TX frequency) and then do at least two things:

a) Save that Run frequency to a new dedicated button in the S&P memory 
window, so you can quickly jump back - and whenever you use that button, 
WL recognizes that you're back into Run mode
b) While in Run mode, have the option to clear RIT automatically when 
each QSO is logged
c) There are also other things that could behave differently between S&P 
and Run, but I'll leave those for someone else...

4. If you QSY to a frequency saved in an S&P memory, and successfully 
log a QSO, then WL leaves you stranded on a frequency for which you have 
no further use (it's someone else's run frequency). At present you'll 
have to tune away manually, unless you also have some other frequencies 
stored in WL or in the rig.

It would be *very* useful if WL had the option to automatically QSY back 
to the stored Run frequency after successfully completing an S&P QSO. 
This option could be offered as: Always QSY / Never QSY / Ask each time 
(using the Ask option need only cost you one keystroke).


I'm aware that we can already do all these things using the keyboard, 
mouse and/or transceiver controls... but that wasn't my point. The aim 
is to have WL do a few more things automatically, that we presently have 
to do manually, so that contesting with WL becomes even smoother.

I'm also very aware that none of these things is essential. They're just 
thrown in for Wayne to consider - but only he can decide. On the other 
hand, Wayne, if you just happen to find yourself in those parts of the 
source code...  :-)



-- 
73 from Ian G3SEK