P: Liquify bug - overlapping shortcuts

[adenry]

Plain and simple, there are overlapping shortcuts in the Liquify filter window.

The shortcut for the Smooth Tool is the E key, however once you press the ALT key inside the Liquify window, that shortcut will no longer work, it will instead toggle the Show Mesh checkbox. Restarting the Liquify window or even Photoshop doesn't seem to help.

The other pair of overlapping shortcuts is for the U key, which will toggle the Show Guides checkbox if you haven't made any changes to the Liquify mesh, or it will press the Reconstruct button if you did.

This is in the Windows version of Photoshop CC 2015.1.1, it was also there in CC 2015.0.1

[David Mohr]

"Obi-Wan, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view..."

Actually, what you're seeing is NOT an overlap of shortcuts but rather a conflation of features.

On Windows, in support of US government's Section 508 Standards, all UI elements that are accessible via mouse click also need to have a keyboard equivalent.  The mechanism to do this is to depress the ALT key and then whatever letter is underlined will then trigger the appropriate command.  You'll see that nearly every other app on Windows does the same thing, and, as much as possible, we try to be consistent about the accelerator keys.  That's the term for the ALT+<some letter> combos, accelerator keys.

So, there you go.

Hope that helps, my padawan,
Thanks,
David

[adenry]

David,

Thank you for your reply.

I'm familiar with the accelerator keys concept, I'm a software engineer.

I will try to explain the problem again, maybe I wasn't clear enough. The accelerator keys are supposed to work only when, A: ALT is pressed and stop working when ALT is depressed, or B: they are supposed to stop working once you press and depress ALT a second time (Like Photoshop's main menu for example). This is not the case in the Liquify filter window: once I press ALT, the ALT shortcuts are active forever, no matter how many times I press and depress ALT. Restarting Liquify, Photoshop, or even Windows does not change that. This virtually renders the E shortcut for the Smooth tool inaccessible.

Further more, the Alt+U shortcut does overlap for two features - Reconstruct and Show Guides. While having accelerator keys is mandatory, it is also mandatory for all of them to be different (using a different letter) so there is no conflict.

A bug is any flaw in the software that causes it to behave not as intended. I'm pretty sure the Photoshop engineers did not intend to create overlapping shortcuts, hence this IS a bug. A conflict of two features is still a bug. And no matter how you call it, it's a problem that needs a solution. Currently, I can not select the Smooth Tool or the Show Guides checkbox with my keyboard.

The solution is simple - change the the shortcut letters so that they are all unique. Currently, they block each other and the purpose of the accelerator keys, which is to give easy keyboard access to any control, is defeated.

If something is still not clear, I can make a video demonstrating the issue.

This problem appears on all PCs in my office, with Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7 installed. The Photoshop version is CC 2015.1.1.

Thank you.
The Force will be with you, always!
Andy

PS: I would appreciate it if you or another employee could respond to my other bug reports.

[David Mohr]

Howdy Andy,

Whoops.  I think an apology is in order -- I'm sorry, I didn't fully grasp what you were describing.  With the clarification, I totally see what you're talking about.  And you called it; that IS a real and valid and serious (and quite new) bug in Photoshop.  I'm going to log it right now.  The crux appears to be that once pressed ALT never leaves the "pressed" state, thereby invalidating a ton of other shortcuts.

For what it's worth, given the number of commands (and limitations of language -- we support 23, I believe), we do sometimes have accelerator keys that toggle between multiple commands.  Since the Office suite does the same with smaller menus, I'm not too worried about it.

I will try and take a look at your other bug reports, but I'm about to go out on paternity leave, so I can't guarantee they'll be handled before I leave.

Thanks,
David

[adenry]

Thank you, David! I'm glad this issue will be looked into.

I really hope that somebody will take a look at my other bug reports, this is the smallest Liquify issue.

Bonus issue: The masking buttons (None, Mask All, Invert All) have no accelerator keys. There are also no accelerator keys for the checkboxes Advanced Mode, Stylus Pressure, and Pin Edges.

PS: If an accelerator key toggles between menus/controls, that is fine, although far from perfect and should only be used as a last resort. But I know it's not always possible to have unique accelerator keys for everything, since there might be no available unique letter. However, in this case the U key always activates the Reconstruct button, so the Show Guides checkbox is never accessible - no toggling between the two going on. I would recommend changing the accelerator key for Show Guides to G, since it is not taken by anything else.

[David Mohr]

Howdy Andy,

Dude, you're gonna keep me busy until I leave!  8-)

Okay, I've gone ahead and logged the missing accelerator key issue as well.  Turns out, there were quite a number missing...  Hopefully, we'll get this resolved soon.  

I'll dig into your other issues on Monday...

Have a good weekend,
David

[adenry]

Haha, sorry about that David!

Thanks again for handling these.

[adenry]

Hi David.

I hate to go off-topic, but do you think you could take a look at my other bug reports? It looks like nobody have, yet. I promise, it's all legit bug reports that you can easily reproduce, not just random problems I have. But I don't see how I can raise attention to them, except contacting you here through this topic...

Andy

[David Mohr]

Howdy Andy,

Technically, I'm already out on paternity leave.  I'm only online cuz waiting around a hotel room for THE call is not my way of having fun, so I'm trying to keep busy and help folks.  I share this with you only so you understand why I'm not championing your issues myself.

Before I left, I did pass your name and a request to investigate all your issues to the guys who normally handle the forums (I'm actually on the development team).  They're awesome and I'm sure that they'll look into your bug reports as soon as they can.  I've told them they can loop me in if needed.  I have logged two of your issues myself, but didn't have enough time last week to research them all.  I would do so now, but what passes for WiFi here isn't good enough to download the new version and this laptop is not up-to-date, so I'm kinda stuck.

Hope that helps or is at least transparent enough to be satisfying and set adequate expectations.

Have a good one,
David

[adenry]

Hey David.

Wow, I'm grateful that you replied, even though you are on leave!
Oh, and you are on the dev team actually, that must be cool :)
Thank you for passing my reports along, that's all I needed to know really!

Hope everything is great after THE call, wish you and yours all the best!