JFC 0.5 classes provide a mechanism that allow the programmers to specify a menu shortcut. This part works well. Pressing a Alt-<menu shortcut> pops a menu.

The problem/bug is that menuitem shortcuts do not works. Using registerKeyboardActions() one can associate a global hotkey that will cause an action.

However, a menu short cut (at least in Motif) should allow the user to press a single letter (specified as the short cut of the menu item) and cause an action.
This functionality is missing (or is buggy).

In Solaris/CDE and using dtterm as an example:

Alt-W pops down a Window menu.
Pressing N (menu short cut for New) causes a New Window action.

This is an essential functionality for shipping JFC-based products that replaces use of Motif.

[gelf 12/5/97]

Menu shortcuts and global menu hotkeys should be independent and follow
the general CUA conventions. A better example would be dtterm's Edit menu.
Edit menu has a shortcut Alt-E (E is underlined) and contains two
items - Copy and Paste. Copy has a shortcut 'C' (C is underlined) and
Paste has a shortcut 'P' (P is underlined). Copy's hotkey is Ctrl-Insert
and Paste's hotkey is Shift-Insert. Hotkeys and shortcuts have different
scope and they act differently. When a user presses Alt-E, the Edit
menu is displayed and the user have access to menu shortcuts 'C' and 'P'
which were not active before. So to copy a selected text into a clipboard
one can press Alt-E and C. Hotkeys, on the other hand, are always active
and when one uses a hotkey the appropriate action is executed without
displaying a menu. Menuitems should support both. Menu shortcuts
should be underlined. Menu labels whould be formatted in such a way
so that all hotkeys of a submenu are left-aligned (bugid: 4096574)