Quick navigation within topics

[julian]

Do you find using a mouse rather tedious? Did you know that NodeBB now supports quick navigation through posts via keyboard?

Give it a try now, hit j or k in this topic to scroll quickly between posts

We adopted j and k because it's a bit of a pseudo-standard for element navigation. It's originally used in the text editor vi, for cursor navigation, but is also used in many other web apps for power users to take advantage of. It especially comes in handy for long conversations where you want to quickly skip to the next post with a quick keystroke, or accurately jump back to the previous post.

We actually had this functionality for a little while in our topic navigator. Before it was the double-chevrons, we had single chevrons as well, to navigate from post to post. In the end we removed them in favour of the dedicated nav window (click it to open the window), but it was fairly simple to re-enable this flow via keyboard commands.

[julian]

Ah, you also need more than one post in a topic to try it out, so... here is that second post

[cagatay]

@julian will we able to control nodebb with joystick?

[gotwf]

@julian said in Quick navigation within topics:

.... power users to take advantage of....

Uhhmmmmm..... Real power users use Emacs.

Seriously. Ever watch a cli commando using vi to navigate, edit, and reuse history? It is just bloody painful. I know because I USED to be one (corp gig, KSH days). Moreover, "p" (previous) and "n" (next) are also much more mnemonic.

And yes, before anyone starts in fanning the flames... I am competent in Vi and will wager I was using Vi long before many here were yet born. Still do, for quick, one off edits server side. It is great that vi/m is pretty much "everywhere" in default *nix installs. Fortunately, more modern "configuration as code" management practices have pretty much obviated the need for such. In any case, the point being, I feel I am qualified to render such perspective. Take it or leave it for whatever that may be worth. But I digress...

I get where you are going with this and I applaud it. Good on ya'!!

Many apps, and pretty much ever shell I can think of off the top of my head, recognize the "editor religious war" and make efforts to accommodate selection of either set of keybindings per individual preference. Any chance of any such luck here?

[julian]

@cagatay said in Quick navigation within topics:

@julian will we able to control nodebb with joystick?

If you map joystick up to k and joystick down to j, I don't see why not

@gotwf said:

keybindings per individual preference

Sure, although I am loathe to add too many configuration options on the user settings (or even the backend), lest the settings page turn into this!

[gotwf]

@julian Yep. Grok what you are getting at here.

OTOH, in the hands of an expert, I suspect all those gauges and controls are a comfort.

Oh, that elusive "middle ground". As mentioned elsewhere, I do not envy the task modern UI/UX designers have before them.