[SUGGESTION] Large Scale Macro/Keybinding Manager -> Vim for Musescore?

[playerpiano05]

The amount of mousing that has to be done to access information in pallets is absurd. I feel it could be completely reasonable to be able to toggle a Vim mode kind of thing, say activate a selector layer with some control/cmd combo, and then each inspector pallet can be assigned a keystroke within that selector layer, and then that unlocks an action layer in itself to access items within the pallets. What this can end up doing is reducing any desired pallet item to a maximum of 4 keystrokes, and ease basically everyone's concerns about being unable to access things with the keyboard. Thoughts?

[playerpiano05]

this could also be an overall (or at least optional overall; toggleable?) to how navigation is done throughout the entire app. Think normal mode: moving through individual notes with h/l moving up and down across lines using j/k, move through measures (words) with w/e/b, etc. for those not familiar with vim motions, look here: https://vim.rtorr.com/. note input mode can be engaged with i as per usual, and select mode can be accessed by v, just as in vim. Of course, these keys can be changed. there should be a dialog for a user to configure their entire keyboard if they so choose, but i think that there should be a nonzero overlap of vim users and musicians (since I am here, at least). making the entire engraving process mouse-free would be a HUGE improvement for musescore and how it's accepted, and i feel that a new control scheme is needed. the current one is clunky, there is only intuition for the most basic of the control schemes, whereas with this, there would be an underlying logic for how the scheme works that's been well understood for decades, just applied in a different way.

[MarcSabatella]

MuseScore already supports complete keyboard navigation of the UI and the score itself - it is in fact the most keyboard-accessible music notation program out there, and the top choice of blind musicians for exactly this reason. Be sure to read the Handbook section on keyboard shortcuts and on accessibility to learn how to do this (eg, Left/Right plus Ctrl and/or Alt to navigate the score horizontally, Alt+Up/Down vertically, Tab, F6, and cursor to navigate the UI, etc), and ask questions on the Support forum at musescore.org, if you have questions.

That said, nothing wrong with the original request for even better keyboard navigation of the palettes, and this is already on the radar.

[playerpiano05]

I'm definitely well aware that the current navigation is effective; I was mainly suggesting having a separate "VIM mode" to maintain logical consistency, and allow for easy transfer of familiarity. Do you think it would be reasonable for me to develop both of these features to be toggled? Or do you think only building the navigation of pallets would be good? My thought is that a rewrite of the control surface (as a toggleable mode) could also really help with percussion note input, as entry exceeds the notes A-G, and using the on screen keyboard to access additional notes is cumbersome. Thank you for engaging with this idea, and let me know your further thoughts.

[playerpiano05]

The reason why I'm such a big proponent of vim motions is that it can massively simplify selection. Instead of having to delete -> shift arrow over two measures and five notes ,(9 key presses with time delay for visual feedback, room for error) one could literally just type d2w5k to get a precise selection and deletion.

[MarcSabatella]

You don’t need a whole separate mode to change the shortcuts to H/J/K/L - just do that yourself in Edit / Preferences / Shortcuts. VIM is probably familiar to only 0.1% of MuseScore users, so overall mimicking its quirky choices of shortcuts isn’t going to have wide appeal, but the shortcut customization facility is there for you.

Palette navigation is definitely more keystrokes than it needs to be, and there are already tentative plans on how to improve that. Percussion input is also being completely revamped for 4.5.