Alt-# for selecting result list entries vs. letters

[alias]

(I started formulating the idea behind this message when I noticed that the only key on my relatively new laptop that has the lettering worn off already is the left Alt key...)

I see that Left-Alt-# launches an entry from a result list, but Right-Alt-# doesn't.  Is that a design choice?

I was wondering, since searches aren't case-sensitive anyway, if it would be useful to allow Shift-letter to select from the list, e.g. A for the first choice instead of 1, B for the second, etc...  This would have the side-effect of giving you the ability to select from a longer list of results, too.  And I think it would make FARR even faster...

(If this seems completely nutty, please bear with me:  As I said in another post, I've been doing this stuff a long time and I don't move my hands from the home row unnecessarily anymore - I use Vim for my editor, ViEmu is my favorite add-on for Visual Studio and MS Word, and Vimperator is the only Firefox extension I simply would not do without...  I'm even playing with Kommand now (kylirhorton.com), an AHK script that's basically aiming to be a cross-application Vim-like key mapper, so you can expect nutty from me at times...)

[mouser]

I was wondering, since searches aren't case-sensitive anyway, if it would be useful to allow Shift-letter to select from the list, e.g. A for the first choice instead of 1, B for the second, etc...  This would have the side-effect of giving you the ability to select from a longer list of results, too.

i thought of this as well.. but then i was thinking.. does anyone ever really launch results > 9 using the keyboard? it seems at that point when a result is so low down you are already moving your mouse to click it, or typing something else to refine the search.

i could make right alt work as normal left-alt though.

[Ampa]

I have limited my short view to 9 results specifically because I launch from the numeric keypad. If I am using +sall then I resort to the mouse - however other people may feel differently about this.

I also feel that more than 9 items is too many to take in at a glance - indeed when designing GUIs or menu systems one is often told that the mind can only handle 7 or 8 choices visible at once.

[alias]

I don't have any strong feelings about it - it was just an idea - but, as I said, the main reason I liked it is that I think it's (a little) faster and easier to use Shift-letter than Alt-#.

[skajfes]

I usually keep on typing until my desired result is at the first place and I can launch it with enter.

[alias]

Hmmmmm - I guess that's what I usually end up doing, too, now that I think about it...