O[1] RLY?[2][3] (Whether they have one or not is beside the point.)
> more importantly, CUA dates back to 1987, which is predated by the original 1984 Macintosh - which by that time already had established quite a few conventions of its own. I wouldn't blame it on Apple that they've stuck with their own conventions
Irrelevant. The Mac OS isn't the same as the one that shipped in 1984. It certainly didn't have Spotlight then, for example. Supporting CUA-style menu access keys would be an additive change—the same way that importing the benefits of the UNIX userspace by way of NeXTStep was additive (but far less invasive than that one); no one said to stop supporting other menu access methods.
> Supporting CUA-style menu access keys would be an additive change [...].
As I said, Macs don't have an Alt key; there's an Opt key, which (depending on context) can work like AltGr or Alt (the latter usually when combined with Cmd). You can't draw a 1:1 comparison with a PC keyboard, because they're just different things.
Overloading Opt to access menus is not an additive change. Opt-e in my keyboard layout produces "ę"; Opt-x produces "ź". You'd take away my ability to type in my native language.
Introducing new modifier keys (say OptGr+e would produce "ę" but Opt-e would access the menu) would be a drastic and unwelcome change. I would equate it with changing the meaning of "Shift" when pressing number keys. It's something you just don't do to your users, no matter how much more sensible it appears to you.
Again, it's all platform conventions. When you travel to Italy, you don't bitch that nobody speaks German - even if German is standardized, and officially spoken in three different countries.
O[1] RLY?[2][3] (Whether they have one or not is beside the point.)
> more importantly, CUA dates back to 1987, which is predated by the original 1984 Macintosh - which by that time already had established quite a few conventions of its own. I wouldn't blame it on Apple that they've stuck with their own conventions
Irrelevant. The Mac OS isn't the same as the one that shipped in 1984. It certainly didn't have Spotlight then, for example. Supporting CUA-style menu access keys would be an additive change—the same way that importing the benefits of the UNIX userspace by way of NeXTStep was additive (but far less invasive than that one); no one said to stop supporting other menu access methods.
1. <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_Modifier_Keys....>
2. <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_Keyboard_(A104...>
3. <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_iMac_Keyboard_...>