The icon editor cannot be closed with the 'esc' key. This throws off my programming "groove" because it is inconsistent with the behavior of the old icon editor and almost every other dialog in labview that has a cancel button.
Some previous discussion about this is here, http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Close-icon-editor-with-enter-key/idi-p/997401
AristosQueue explained the reason for the mising 'esc' key response:
Curiously, these two keys (escape and enter) were linked to the buttons until after the second beta of LV2009 when usability feedback convinced us to remove them. Too many people used escape to cancel the current drag operation or to clear the current selection and they were accidentally quitting the icon editor and losing their work. With the enter key, they would hit it when they didn't need to, thinking it did something, and thus committing their work.
Instead of arguing against user habits, I'd like to base this on the consistent binding of the 'esc' key to the cancel button in the labview environment. My golden rule has always been "consisteny is key" as leads to a intuitive user-friendly user interface. Below is a list of places where it is/isn't bound. It is pretty obvious which the consistent use case is...
Dialogs, with a cancel button, that are closed with escape key:
- pre-2009 icon editor
- every file/folder open/save dialog
- File
- new...
- save for previous version...
- Page setup
- print
- VI properties
- Edit
- VI revision history..
- Runtime menu
- Find and replace
- search results
- View
- Quick drop
- Breakpoint manager
- Probe watch window
- Error List
- .NET assemblies in memory
- Operate
- connect to a remote panel...
- debug application or shared library
- Tools
- compare VIs
- merge VIs/llbs
- convert build script
- and many more that no one uses very often....
Dialogs, with a cancel button, that are not closed with the escape key:
Note that these lists are only good for dialogs with a 'cancel' button. Dialogs lacking this button are assumed designed to have different behavior.
