To answer you opinion questions

[sventhegrinch]

- Are there commands that you want keyboard shortcuts for, and do you have any suggested combinations?
Nope, I have to admit I am not using shortcuts a lot (other than terminal stuff)

- Are there any file formats or archive types that we should consider supporting?
Well, Tcl would be nice (I know... not super popular these days, but I still use it). Also Javascript and Ruby seem like obvious choices. yaml would be great too. Let me know if I can help with Tcl and/or yaml.

- OS X apps generally don't include icons or keyboard shortcuts in their right-click menus, so BC currently doesn't either. Is this an issue for you?
Not et al an issue for me.

Thanks,
Sven

[gks]

RE: To answer you opinion questions

- Are there commands that you want keyboard shortcuts for, and do you have any suggested combinations?
Not really, I use on Windows 'Cntrl+R' and 'Cntrl+L' and 'F7' most often. Most of my navigation is through toolbar and right-click menu. FYI: I have my 'System Preferences -> Keyboard set to 'Use all F keys as standard function keys', so maintaining 'F' shortcut keys would be preferable to me.

- Are there any file formats or archive types that we should consider supporting?
Nothing specific, but I could possibly see being able to compare 'Package Contents' might be useful.

- OS X apps generally don't include icons or keyboard shortcuts in their right-click menus, so BC currently doesn't either. Is this an issue for you?
No, heh, well kinda. :P I don't know how this affects your decision regarding 'right-click menus' but, I have gotten very used to the diff icons in the 'Show Differences' drop down. They make it very intuitive when selecting how to 'diff' and ease of use is one of the things I think makes BC such a great application. So, icons, Yes. Definitely in the toolbar drop downs.

~Greg

[maciej.barczak]

OS X apps generally don't include icons or keyboard shortcuts in their right-click menus, so BC currently doesn't either. Is this an issue for you?

Icons in context menus in BC for Linux/Win are very helpfull, give possibility to notice faster desired command. So I would love to see it also in OS X. Don't care that other apps don't include it. In BC it just works.Frankly,this is the only feature (or rather lack of a feature) that confuses me in BC for OS X.
Thanks,
Maciek

[jenji]

- Are there commands that you want keyboard shortcuts for, and do you have any suggested combinations?
Actually, I would tend to avoid the F keys as far as shortcuts go, since there are a number of system functions typically mapped to them. As an IntelliJ user, where those mappings exist as ported from the windows version, they tend to drive me nuts.

I would like to see shortcuts for navigating next/prev diff, next/prev conflict, take left, take right, edit, that kind of thing. I'll have to work with it more to think of natural shortcuts for those operations.

- Are there any file formats or archive types that we should consider supporting?
Groovy files, Java properties, python style config/ini. I'm sure I could think of some more, but those at least have the theme of being often used for configuration.

- OS X apps generally don't include icons or keyboard shortcuts in their right-click menus, so BC currently doesn't either. Is this an issue for you?
A number of apps seem to go against that as a convention, so I don't feel that breaks the user experience terribly. I would rather have the shortcuts all the time, as it helps people learn them, and icons where it makes the operation clearer.

[grzegorz.kosciolek]

- Are there any file formats or archive types that we should consider supporting?
PSD, 7z (nice to have)

- OS X apps generally don't include icons or keyboard shortcuts in their right-click menus, so BC currently doesn't either. Is this an issue for you?
Icons would be helpfull but they are not mandatory. It is not an issue.

[Aaron]

-
A number of apps seem to go against that as a convention, so I don't feel that breaks the user experience terribly. I would rather have the shortcuts all the time, as it helps people learn them, and icons where it makes the operation clearer.

Do you have any examples we could study?

[PeteLund]

I'm another vote for keyboard shortcuts for Next Diff, Prev Diff, Next File, Prev File. I use BC heavily for reviewing difference with folders, and moving within and between files via shortcuts is a big productivity gain for me. Same for Copy Left, Copy Right.

Plus, this is going to sound weird as a MBP user, but the Touchpad is frankly inefficient as a pointing tool. A mouse helps, but keyboard shortcuts are even better.

[Aaron]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the feedback. The alpha currently does not have any shortcuts enabled by default, because we are not sure of the best defaults to use. Do you have any suggestions?

You can test out any specific hotkey combination by enabling it in our Beyond Compare -> Preferences dialog, Toolbars, Etc section.

[PeteLund]

Selecting the shortcuts is indeed a challenge. Eclipse faces the same problem, because several of the Eclipse Windows shortcuts already have meaning on the Mac.

My first thought is Ctrl-Cmd versions of the Windows shortcuts
Ctrl-Cmd-N Next Diff
Ctrl-Cmd-Shift-N Prev Diff
Ctrl-Cmd-M Next Diff File
Ctrl-Cmd-Shift-M Prev Diff File
Ctrl-Cmd-L Copy Left
Ctrl-Cmd-R Copy Right

The Ctrl-Cmd-Shift is awkward for the left hand, but I've gotten used to it in Eclipse.

(Incidentally, I first considered simply Ctrl-N etc, but this doesn't seem to be reassignable.)

[tomacpace]

Just a quick addition to this thread from myself...

I've recently assigned:

Cmd+Option+A = Align.

I love using align, and had muscle-memory developed for the Windows F7 shortcut.

[jenji]

Do you have any examples we could study?

Sorry for the delay in response, been a little crazy. The first two I noticed that don't follow that convention are IntelliJ and iTerm2.

[pdegregorio]

Opinion question reply

- Are there commands that you want keyboard shortcuts for, and do you have any suggested combinations?

Yes, definitely! Please include as many as possible of the keyboard shortcuts that the Windows version has. If that is too weird for Mac users (and it may be) have an option to use the Windows settings vs Mac. Having an option to make the Mac and Windows version operate the same is a big deal to me. Example: F2 to rename a file.

I'm grateful that BC has not gone full Mac user interface and hopefully does not plan to. I appreciate that Enter key opens the comparison (rather than renames file as in the Mac Finder) and Esc closes the tab. That said, maybe an option to for Mac, Windows or Custom keyboard mappings would be good to have. I don't know about pure Mac users ... maybe they want to have to Cmd-O to open a file and have the Enter key do a rename.

I am not advocating that Ctrl (primary Windows command key) be substituted for Cmd (primary Mac command key). I want Cmd-Shift-S to save the session; not asking for Ctrl-Shift-S.

- Are there any file formats or archive types that we should consider supporting?

PDF files. The Open with Associate Application works for me but comparison is binary would be nice to have text comparison. Low priority in my opinion.

- OS X apps generally don't include icons or keyboard shortcuts in their right-click menus, so BC currently doesn't either. Is this an issue for you?

Not sure what this question is asking. Right click where?

[Aaron]

Hello,

The right click in most locations, but specifically within BC3's views, such as right clicking in a file in the Folder Compare, or right click into a pane of the Text Compare. On OSX, there are usually no icons, only words. On Windows in BC3, we have a few graphical icons on the left.

[jcphua]

Would be nice to have Cmd+Delete to force deletion of a file without prompt-- this is the key combo I've gotten used to when deleting files in Finder.