Hacker News Reader

Comment by spiderxxxx | Hacker News Reader

Ok, step back a bit... I have a file selected, I have a key called 'enter' - if I press 'enter' what would you expect to happen? I'd expect to 'enter' the file - by opening it or 'entering' the file. I wouldn't expect it to 'enter a new name', because that's an editing function.

Now, my mac has enter marked as 'return'. Let's follow the same logic, assume I have a file selected, what should 'return' on a file do? Return it to where?

View on HN

I see the logic, but in my opinion fumbles with this shortcut are catastrophic enough (sitting there waiting for N files to open in however many apps so they can all be closed) that the “logical” option shouldn’t necessarily be favored. That said, the alternative doesn’t necessarily have to be Command-O (though I like the mnemonics of that), some other modifier paired with return/enter could work too, but I really don’t think it should be a single key shortcut.

The key is Return. It's always been called Return on Macs (AFAIK). "Return to rename" is just a convention, and it doesn't make sense, but calling the key Enter and not making a distinction between Return and Enter is a Windowsism, just like expecting Ctrl + C to work, the semaphore to be on the right side of the window and — for the longest time — expecting the green dot to "maximize" the app (since changed from Zoom to Fullscreen).

The button is labeled “Return” on Macs. You certainly don’t expect that button to navigate back..

Reply on news.ycombinator.com