=== Patch first ===
The Patch https://sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php?group_id=93438&atid=604308&...
The Patch assigns F1 to Help, Keys and moves some other keys around mapping them to ones used by Xara.
The tracker request https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1326159&gr...
=== Ask questions later ===
(And these are just for starters)
Inkscape has keybindings for almost everything which makes it very hard to change anything without having consequences, it is worse than a Rubiks cube. I tried to make changes as non invasive as possible but it was difficult.
I may not use Inkscape every day but it is precisely for that reason I find it so important to try and get inkscape to use Keybindings which resemble those used by other applications. F1 for Help was one of the first and most important keybindings I learnt (and hitting Esc like a madman anytime something went wrong was probably the second). It is not just about F1 but it seems like a place to start. Beginners and new users face a much steeper learning curve if Inkscape uses different conventions from other applications. I realise an changes will be uncomfortable for existing users but no one ever claimed Inkscape was ready for stable 1.0 and not going to change things around. Experienced users should know inkscape will be subject to changes and they are exactly the people best able to adapt to changes and if we are lucky they might even like the changes because they make inkscape a little more like Xara.
The long term solution is of course to have fully switchable keyboard profiles. That doesn't change the need for good defaults and I hope by trying out these ideas (even if they need to be reverted before the next release) it will encourage people who do not like it to come up with better suggestions rather than blocking changes.
Using F1 for help is a convention used by Windows, Mac OS X, Gnome, KDE. The changes make Inkscape more like Xara [1] in particular.
Precedent is significant but if we at least try out the change we can get a better idea of the impact. If people really hate the change and it has to be reverted it will at least help show the need for different keyboard shortcut profiles sooner rather than later.
There are many more things which could be said about this but please lets try it and come up with ways to do it better rather than not doing it at all.
(bulia mentioned his displeasure at the choice of Zoom key which I expect could be addressed parallel to this by providing other Zoom functionality but I think that may need seperate discussion.)
Sincerely
Alan Horkan
Inkscape http://inkscape.org Abiword http://www.abisource.com Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/ Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org
Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
[1] Keyboard Shortcuts for Xara http://www.xaraxone.com/html/tip_of_the_week_4.html http://www.xaraxone.com/assets/images/tip_30.gif (I have a text reference of the Xara shortcuts too somwhere, if anyone has a reference for Corel I'd appreciate it too.)