Comments on: John Gruber on anchored and unanchored selection in lists and text views in Mac OS X http://www.betalogue.com/2006/08/05/john-gruber-on-anchored-and-unanchored-selection-in-lists-and-text-views-in-mac-os-x/ Notes from an unfinished world… Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:48:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ssp http://www.betalogue.com/2006/08/05/john-gruber-on-anchored-and-unanchored-selection-in-lists-and-text-views-in-mac-os-x/comment-page-1/#comment-6283 ssp Sun, 06 Aug 2006 16:07:16 +0000 http://www.betalogue.com/2006/08/05/john-gruber-on-anchored-and-unanchored-selection-in-lists-and-text-views-in-mac-os-x/#comment-6283 I'm really split on this one. John Gruber does make a good point and the effort of explaining what's going on and why. Not being a frequent keyboard-list-selector myself, I have still managed to run into this exact problem and consider it a problem. Yet, I keep thinking the implemented behaviour is quite logical and easier to understand than the behaviour that may come handy in some situations. Particularly so as the current way Apple handle this issue leaves no ambiguities: You see that screen and whatever single, multiple or discontinuous selection you have it is clear and predictable what hitting a shift-arrow key combination will do. So this comes down to a fight between clarity and predictability vs an easy way (for geeks, as you point out) to correct their typos. And while I may have suffered from this 'problem' myself, I generally think that Apple siding with clarity and predictability is both consistent and a good thing. I’m really split on this one. John Gruber does make a good point and the effort of explaining what’s going on and why.

Not being a frequent keyboard-list-selector myself, I have still managed to run into this exact problem and consider it a problem. Yet, I keep thinking the implemented behaviour is quite logical and easier to understand than the behaviour that may come handy in some situations. Particularly so as the current way Apple handle this issue leaves no ambiguities: You see that screen and whatever single, multiple or discontinuous selection you have it is clear and predictable what hitting a shift-arrow key combination will do.

So this comes down to a fight between clarity and predictability vs an easy way (for geeks, as you point out) to correct their typos. And while I may have suffered from this ‘problem’ myself, I generally think that Apple siding with clarity and predictability is both consistent and a good thing.

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