spacebar in nautilus should not open a file

[X]

Package hint: Nautilus

By mistake, I hold down the spacebar, the result was a file opening SEVERAL times.
Then i realized, it's really necesary the option to open a file by pressing enter or spacebar?

[Marcus Carlson (0-launchpad-mejlamej-nu)]

Maybe we should only open the file on key up event?

[Steve McGrath (smcgrath23)]

I agree with the reporter, Spacebar is kind of a weird binding for this. Enter is absolutely necessary, as some people, myself included, like to do as much as possible with the keyboard alone.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. The issue is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug the to the people writting the software (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME)

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Any news about this? Has someone sent this upstream? May you tell us the bug number? Thanks.

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

By the way: I think the problem is not really that holding down spacebar tries to open a file multiple times. The application that displays the file should be able to prevent multiple instances of the file to be opened at the same time.

[X (axcoro)]

I think that open 50 times the same file in the same app is not a solution.

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Then you should send your wish upstream by following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

any news about this? did you sent the bug upstream? otherwise we might close this report. thanks.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=606403

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

reported the exact words of this bug

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

triaged would be a better status for this.

[X (axcoro)]

Sorry, I'm on vacation and do not have a PC at hand .. I am answering from a cell phone ... om26er, thanks for reporting upstream!

[Marcus Carlson (0-launchpad-mejlamej-nu)]

fyi, I just applied a patch upstream.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Upstream comment
>>>>>
I'd like to hear some more arguments why this behaviour should be changed. The
bug report indicates that someone accidentally pressed space bar - that doesn't
seem like a good enough reason to change the current mapping.

In GTK, space is used to 'Toggle selected state of focused check box, radio
button, or toggle button' - Nautilus would seem consistent with this.

The major inconsistency is with web browsers, where space scrolls down. Many
people learn shortcuts in that context and *could* expect similar behaviour in
their web browser.

What do Finder and Windows Explorer do?

Whatever happens, I don't see a good argument for not using the space bar as a
short cut for something. Other apps use it, I don't see why Nautilus shouldn't.
<<<<<<<

[André Ventura (afv)]

The behavior I'm getting on nautilus 1:3.1.2-0ubuntu2 (the latest version on oneiric) and that looks fine is the following:

- spacebar: does nothing;
- ctrl+spacebar: selects/unselects the file (useful when used in combination with the arrow keys, keeping the ctrl key presed);
- shift+spacebar: opens the file.

[Vadim Gusev (zarbis)]

I completely disagree with current behavior, where spacebar does nothing, here is reasons:
1) Like Omer Akram said, pressing selected buttons is much like opening selected files, so this behavior is consistent through different UI elements

2) As for me, opening files/folder with spacebar is most efficient way of performing file navigaton, where right hand is used to select elements with mouse or arrow keys and left hands used to press Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Spacebar and number keys to:
1) navigate between tabs (Alt+#, Ctrl+T)
2) hold selection modifying keys like Ctrl or Shift
3) press copy/paste hotkeys (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V)
4) open selected files
All that action can be performed without moving hand away.

In situation where spacebar does nothing i'm forced to constantly move left palm between Ctrl-Alt-Shift area and Enter key, or constantly put right hand off mouse/arrow keys to press Enter on NumPad, which is rally annoying. Hope at least we can get a choice in gconf or somewhere else.

[Aditya V (kroq-gar78)]

GNOME Sushi provides a preview of the file when spacebar is pressed, not opening the file entirely, but Sushi has to be manually installed - it's not there by default.