Command Key on MAC. What will it look like in Windows?

I have been doing a lot of work on a module on my Mac. I have multiple key shortcuts that use the Mac command key. On a mac you have fn, control, option and command.

I do not have a PC. It just occured to me, what will Command (CMD) map to for people who try to use the module on a PC??? Does anyone know? does it map sensibly, automatically?

I really hope I dont have to go through and map a bazillion menu items across a bazillion counters to some plaform agnostic key sequence…

Cheers
Ross

Mac Windows
control ctrl
option alt
command windows

I also develop on a Mac. I test with friends, most of whom who use Windows. I decided early on not to use Cmd for normal functions - I use it for the odd development or obscure scenario maintenance function but that’s it. One of the issues is that the Windows key mentioned by @palad0n is prolifically used by windows itself. There are probably ways for the Windows user to tailor that but it’s not worth the hassle. You also have Linux to consider, I am not sure what that uses.

Considering the alternatives;
Fn keys - work, but more appropriate for hotkeys than piece commands, in my view.
Option/Alt - good mapping but this modifier key doubles for special character input. Use sparingly.*
Control - less used on Mac so Mac doesn’t have the conflict that Windows users get with their windows key; so I use the Control key as the more system agnostic key.

*Right-Option - Vassal does not recognise this MacOS key when it is used for most hotkeys. A bug report is outstanding.

The good news, if it is good news, is that you can use the editor search to find those Cmd+ keys - just literally type Cmd+ and the keyboard character into the search field. In Tools…, there’s a key command list as well that might help.

A couple of years ago the Vassal team tried to get the Cmd key to operate natively on Mac (ie a Control+ keystroke on windows would map to Cmd+ on Mac). This is achieved in the Editor but in the Player some obscure and tricky conundrums emerged in testing and sadly the change had to be reverted.

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Is Don Is Good! Thanks.

Follow on question. You only need to use the right click menu to drive this beast as far as i can tell. The key shortcuts are only there because I’ve notice if you do not fill that field in the option just doesn’t show in the menu for some reason. So if you just use the mouse right clicks then it shouldn’t matter what the mapping is on windows as they dont ever really have to use that key click.

is that correct?

I have never used the windows key to do anything in a vassal module.
As for hotkeys, I prefer to use them whenever possible (and if I can actually remember what it is). That said though I believe that most people use the right click menu to do most of the stuff.

Yes, a lot of player seem to prefer right-click (aka “context”) menu - it depends on how familiar you are with the module, I guess.

You can have the right-click menu without any shortcuts by specifying a long-form key command (sorry i forget the correct term again), instead of a single keystroke. These will fulfill the requirement to have a key command for the menu item but the key command won’t appear in the menu.

Personally, at least for common functions, I would include a shortcut because the menu will make it discoverable and users can learn and get the best out of the module if it suits them to use shortcuts. In Vassal v3.6.8, they will be more neatly presented too, which will be nice.

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Named Key Commands. With the caveat that I don’t know the module in question nor its player community, in general I’m very skeptical that most players commit anything beyond a small handful of frequently-used keyboard shortcuts to memory and actually invoke them. If someone spends the bulk of their time in 1 or 2 modules the odds probably go up, but even then if the variety of actions you can do to a selected piece is large, they’re probably only retaining the most common basic ones.

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