Disable ESCape key cancellation

[pseakins]

As a programmer working online with colleagues we are constanly typing stuff, sending links and files, popping up windows etc. Most programming tools respond to ESCape to cancel display windows etc. Unfortunately, so does Trillian. If I'm accidently in the Trillian window when I hit escape, it cancels and I lose the display of the recent conversation. Then I need to open the history with notepad, which is a real pain.

So, please, please, please, consider disabling the escape key when in a Trillian chat window. Maybe you could make it an option.


BTW, I found that I can set escape as a hotkey in Trillian and flag it to do nothing. But then, as it is GLOBAL, it takes the escape key away from all my applications where I really need it.

[benjsilver]

u can have the last 30 lines of text show when u reopen the convo window, dont do it in notepad silly

[CPAGirlNC]

u can have the last 30 lines of text show when u reopen the convo window, dont do it in notepad sillyThat's true if he has the Pro version. That feature is not in Basic, however.

[Arrgh]

This would be pretty nice, especially for IRC.

[darkwarrior42]

Still no help on this point? It's such a basic feature I'm flabbergasted as to why it has not been implemented yet.

(Hopefully nobody will come into this thread and call us idiots for wanting to customize a hotkey, as has been done in other threads on this topic).

[FreedomDwarf]

Trillian is using the keys just like any other application - especially things like the Esc key. It's a sort-of de-facto standard use.
Why you can't be just as careful using Trillian as you would with all your other apps is a bit baffling to me.
There is no such thing as a "Basic" version any more though, that died in Trillian v3 - all features of Trillian are now free and you can change the number of lines displayed in the previous conversation in the chat window to 99 - so there's no need to open the chat history at all, either in Notepad or from Trillian itself.
There has always been a way to see the chat history directly from Trillian since v2 (2002) so why you ever needed to open it in Notepad is beyond me!
Same as asking for Trillian to move away from using an industry standard use of a particular key is also a tad baffling.

[Memnoch]

There has always been a way to see the chat history directly from Trillian since v2 (2002) so why you ever needed to open it in Notepad is beyond me!

The Activity Viewer was only available to Pro users.

[FreedomDwarf]

Have always been Pro - too many important features were disabled if you didn't go Pro.

[darkwarrior42]

There is no application or program I have ever used, save Trillian, where hitting the "escape" key closes the program. Even here, editing this very forum, escape does nothing at all. Cancel dialogue boxes? Yes. Close editing windows? Yes. Completely close the active window entirely as if you had shut down the program? No.

I am careful with my applications, but there are also time I'm in a hurry and, due to habits learned from using every other program on this and every system I have ever used, I forget when I'm not actively thinking about that this one program behaves differently.

I am honestly shocked that you refer to it as "de facto standard use", when I have just now gone through every program I use on a regular basis, and not one of them does this except for Trillian. However, if the only people that are going to respond are going to implicitly insult people for asking that a key not work in this particular way, or even for just the ability to change it, then I will simply not buy Pro as I was considering. I'm not going to pay for a program that can't handle something as simple as hotkeys.

[TheKong]

There is no application or program I have ever used, save Trillian, where hitting the "escape" key closes the program.

Trillian itself does not close/shutdown when you press the ESC key.

[FreedomDwarf]

A chat window is treated just like any other dialogue box - Esc will close it.
But as Kong has stated, it does not close the program.

[DiamondNRG]

There is no application or program I have ever used, save Trillian, where hitting the "escape" key closes the program. Even here, editing this very forum, escape does nothing at all. Cancel dialogue boxes? Yes. Close editing windows? Yes. Completely close the active window entirely as if you had shut down the program? No.

I am careful with my applications, but there are also time I'm in a hurry and, due to habits learned from using every other program on this and every system I have ever used, I forget when I'm not actively thinking about that this one program behaves differently.

I am honestly shocked that you refer to it as "de facto standard use", when I have just now gone through every program I use on a regular basis, and not one of them does this except for Trillian. However, if the only people that are going to respond are going to implicitly insult people for asking that a key not work in this particular way, or even for just the ability to change it, then I will simply not buy Pro as I was considering. I'm not going to pay for a program that can't handle something as simple as hotkeys.

It behaves like all other IM CLIENTS ... not really all software. And there is no Pro version for you to buy, so your threat is pointless and just as stupid as your reply saying you were insulted.

Why would you push the escape key anyways? What were you trying to do? Just close some other dialog box on top of Trillian while Trillian was in focus? Oh wait it doesn't have any of those.

So really there isn't a valid usage case here, there is no reason to hit escape when using Trillian unless you want it to close the chat window.

[watty1964]

I agree with the other posters here that ESC shouldn't close down the current chat window completely. In IRC, the ESC key actually causes you to leave the channel which isn't the behaviour we expect, regardless of what other IM clients do.

In my case, the expected behaviour would be to cancel the text I have just typed in when I decide I don't want to send it to the channel.

[FreedomDwarf]

I haven't known anywhere where an ESC key just cancels the typed text. No word processor (since DOS 1.0) or any other chat client I have used does this - not even in UserPlane or Java-driven chat rooms or channels. So why do you expect something different from Trillian?
I use similar stuff to IRC but just like IRC you are removed from the channel or ESC does nothing - it doesn't remove unsent typed text (CTRL-Z does that).
Once you are in an IRC channel it is basically using the IRC control rather than Trillian.
I don't see how Trillian can change the behaviour in what's happening at the remote end if that other end isn't also under the control of Trillian. In my case, the expected behaviour would be to cancel the text I have just typed in when I decide I don't want to send it to the channel.In which case, address your concerns to the IRC system you are using - it's not a Trillian problem.

Much like with Skype... Trillian talks to SkypeKit but after that, it's down to Skype what it does with it, not Trillian.

And just like any other "HotKey" assignment, it will tend to become global as that side of it is controlled by the windows key processing functions at a very basic level. Theorectically, you could re-assign any key on the keyboard to do any function you like if the program allows you and Trillian does allow some "HotKey" assignments to do things. If that isn't enough, you can always write your own keyboard hook and do what you like with each key as it is pressed and/or released but as NRG stated earlier, there is no valid usage case here.

[DiamondNRG]

Freedom, I think he meant he is USING TRILLIAN FOR IRC ... and thus that is when he gets screwed up by hitting Escape and it closes him out of the channel.

[FreedomDwarf]

@NRG: I know, but his expectation of what the ESC key does and what happens inside his IRC channel (Trillian or native) when he presses it is what he is complaining about.
I was pointing out that in my 4 decades of computing experience across many platforms I have not come across or used any package where the ESC key just wipes unsent/uncommitted text as he is expecting.
I don't use IRC directly but have and do use lots of similar things and none of them do what he expects ESC to do and I don't think Trillian (or anything else for that matter) has sufficient control over the remote end (IRC) to stop ESC from aborting the channel. Of course he can tell Trillian to trap that key and do nothing with it but then that also has global implications (as you would expect) and he is complaining about that too!

[Memnoch]

It really sounds like you don't know anything about IRC.

[DiamondNRG]

It really sounds like you don't know anything about IRC.

Agreed. Not sure how he can voice his opinion about 4 decades of using everything EXCEPT IRC and think it makes sense.

[FreedomDwarf]

I have used IRC in the past for a couple of years but don't any more so its not complete nonsense.

[DiamondNRG]

I have used IRC in the past for a couple of years but don't any more so its not complete nonsense.

Just partial nonsense? :P Sorry, I had to.

While I agree that as a default the ESC behavior makes sense, there is nothing wrong with allowing the binding of that key to be optional/configurable like most of the other hotkeys are. It would please people so CS should do it.

[FreedomDwarf]

I suppose it wouldn't be too much to add it to the list of 'program actions' that the user could select from in the automation section of preferences. You certainly couldn't leave it as an open hook as it would need somewhere to go to process the key.

But like many other outstanding things that need fixing in Trillian - what sort of priority would you give it? Just because it should theoretically be a quick thing to do, should something like this take higher precedence than..... {pick any one of hundreds of 'quick' fixes that have been suggested}??

What we users could do with (and we know we won't get it) is some sort of job list of bugs/fixes/features that the devs have, and the theoretical order in which they are likely to be tackled and fixed/implemented or not likely to be done at all.
Yeah, I know we can all dream but someone has to sit on cloud nine don't they? I-)

[watty1964]

@NRGI was pointing out that in my 4 decades of computing experience across many platforms I have not come across or used any package where the ESC key just wipes unsent/uncommitted text as he is expecting.

So in 4 decades you've never used Skype? Try it now (that's if you even have the most popular IM and communications client installed or have ever used it). Start typing a message in Skype, decide you don't want to send it, and press ESC. What happens? Does it kick you out of Skype? No. It just deletes the text you've typed in.

As a non-IRC user can I suggest that you limit your input to something you have experience and an interest in instead of rubbishing the suggestions of people (4 so far in this thread) who use IRC every day?

Whether you disagree or not, we all think that kicking us out of the IRC channel we are in is the wrong action for the ESC key to perform. Skype obviously thinks so as well.

[DiamondNRG]

So in 4 decades you've never used Skype? Try it now (that's if you even have the most popular IM and communications client installed or have ever used it). Start typing a message in Skype, decide you don't want to send it, and press ESC. What happens? Does it kick you out of Skype? No. It just deletes the text you've typed in.

As a non-IRC user can I suggest that you limit your input to something you have experience and an interest in instead of rubbishing the suggestions of people (4 so far in this thread) who use IRC every day?

Whether you disagree or not, we all think that kicking us out of the IRC channel we are in is the wrong action for the ESC key to perform. Skype obviously thinks so as well.

You have basically gotten a point that has been missed by some ... in a private 1-1 conversation, closing the window is not a big deal as its easy to reopen, and thus why the default for almost all 1-1 chat client windows is that Escape closes the window.

Group chats and channels (be it AIM chat, Skype multiple person chat, MSN conference or an IRC channel) are a bit different... in this case Escape should certainly NOT close the group chat (they all are a form of group chat) window. I personally don't really care if Escape deletes the text or not, but it has to do something, and so that makes sense.

[Meglivorn]

Group chats and channels (be it AIM chat, Skype multiple person chat, MSN conference or an IRC channel) are a bit different... in this case Escape should certainly NOT close the group chat (they all are a form of group chat) window. I personally don't really care if Escape deletes the text or not, but it has to do something, and so that makes sense.
Exactly.
I have nothing against ESC closes UI dialog windows, and settings, it's true, standard behavior. But don't close the chat window. It's like ESC would close the tab in your browser.
Chat programs are a little different from others in this way. While it's true that it doesn't quit you from the program, the main reason is the program is the chat, it closes. Like tabs in the browser.
For me it's the second most annoying part of trillian. I'm using 2 monitors, the chat is 100% uptime, mostly on IRC for group hangout, MSN and Gtalk for 1-1 chats. And while I work or have a game on the main diaplay always have a miss window hit on the ESC... and can join the group chat again...
Annoying as hell. :'(