Comment 14 for bug 187531

Thanks, JiHO. Sorry to take so long responding to your post; I've been sick this week.

Points 1 and 2 -- the "discoverability" and Option (Alt) key behavior -- are actually not seperate issues, in this case. Under X11's default settings Emulate Three Button Mouse steals the Option key for it's 2D scrolling function. That behavior appears to the user, however, to be Inkscape's.

With the Option key being stolen by X11 itself, Inkscape doesn't appear to register when it's pressed, and no tooltip explaining what it's meant to be doing is displayed at the bottom of the window. A user would have to happen upon the Emulate Three Button Mouse issue while searching for something else on the site in order to even realize that anything was wrong. As far as assuming that all users will go through the tutorial... unless it's the first level of a videogame, that's probably not the safest assumption to make.

The simplest solution that I can picture is a dialogue that appears when Inkscape opens: "Emulate Three Button Mouse is currently selected in X11's Preferences. This will prevent some keys that Inkscape uses from functioning correctly. Would you like to turn off Emulate Three Button Mouse while Inkscape is running?" It presents the choice plainly, explains why it's needed, and details what it's offering to do. (A link to a more detailed explanation on the FAQ would be friendly there too.)

As far as the deeper philosophy of modifier keys question goes, overall I'm completely with you, but Blender haunts me. I'll type up some quick thoughts in a straight-to-you email when I get a moment.