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Chrome removes Backspace to go back

bugs.chromium.org

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Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#101

Post by thiht »

crazygringo wrote: post #24

Finally! It's about time. I don't know who ever thought having a command that didn't use a modifier key was a good idea -- it's not just about losing form data (even if that's protected against), a webpage can have all sorts of "state" you don't want to lose. Also, what's so hard with tapping Cmd+Left or Ctrl+Left to go back? It's all I've ever done, incredibly intuitive, and simply to do with one hand (using the rig…

Alt is on the left of the keyboard, Left is on the right of the keyboard... It's annoying to use both hands for such a frequent task

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#102

Post by johns »

lstamour wrote: post #81
coldpie wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox still has Ctrl-Q to close the current window, which is right next to Ctrl-W to close the current tab on a English keyboard. This is the first extension I install: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-ctrl-... Dumb.

Ah, yes. On OS X, Ctrl+Q and Ctrl+W (well, their CMD equivalents) are system-wide and it drives me crazy if I hit Ctrl+Q by accident, or that devs prompt to quit because of how easy it is to accidentally press it instead of W. I'm so glad that tabs and state reload in pretty much every app I use these days...

On OS X, go to the Chrome menu, select "Warn Before Quitting". This makes it so you have to hold Cmd-Q to exit. No more accidental closing.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#103

Post by brudgers »

Having a friend who often operates their keyboard by the old stick between their teeth method, I'd like to see an analysis demonstrating that the breaking change improves accessibility. Particularly since the alternative posed in the thread is the chorded alt-left.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#105

Post by anotheryou »

stephenr wrote: post #28
anotheryou wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. The change in context is not clear enough for the average user (Text Field or History) and the consequences are really bad (loss of input text).

Does Chrome not prompt you about losing un-submitted changes to a form when triggering a navigation event?

Have to admit using FF most of the time. I only know the sophisticated websites doing it themselves.

edit: chrome doesn't warn, but browsers can re-fill the input forms when you navigate forwards again. This doesn't help if the state of the website was more complex and fails to resume.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#106

Post by goda90 »

brudgers wrote: post #103

Having a friend who often operates their keyboard by the old stick between their teeth method, I'd like to see an analysis demonstrating that the breaking change improves accessibility. Particularly since the alternative posed in the thread is the chorded alt-left.

I imagine this friend could benefit from a keyboard with extra programmable buttons. Of course you can't expect that for all accessibility needs.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#107

Post by gruez »

crzwdjk wrote: post #96
ruipgil wrote: post #10

I might be the minority here, but I think that using the backspace to go back is counter intuitive. In my mind backspace is to delete something, and I always worry about that.

This is great news. For some use cases, backspace-as-back is a disaster waiting to happen, for example, in a complex web app used in some time-critical task and that requires occasional deleting of text but can lose state or take a while to reload if you accidentally hit back. If you hit backspace without having a text field focused, the whole thing dies and needs to be reloaded and possibly checked to make sure it's…

>I have seen laptops with the backspace key physically ripped out just to prevent people from accidentally triggering its back-button behavior.

how would you correct mistakes? with the delete button?

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#108

Post by gruez »

stephenr wrote: post #28
anotheryou wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. The change in context is not clear enough for the average user (Text Field or History) and the consequences are really bad (loss of input text).

Does Chrome not prompt you about losing un-submitted changes to a form when triggering a navigation event?

AFAIK it's done by javascript by the page.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#109

Post by runlevel1 »

egeozcan wrote: post #80
el_duderino wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is implemented in an extension, would it require the "Allow access to all of the web sites I visit" permission? I'm always a bit apprehensive to enable those sort of extensions.

Wait someone to implement it then extract source or implement it yourself, but rather than going through the store, add the code you inspected/wrote to the browser by enabling "Developer mode" in the Extensions (chrome://extensions/) then clicking "Load unpacked extension". This would be a very simple piece of code so getting no updates is actually better for security in this case IMHO.

Chrome now disables it unless it's in the app store:

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2811969?hl=en

EDIT: And prompts you to disable it at startup if it's unpacked.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#110

Post by stephenr »

kijin wrote: post #93
stephenr wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I lose form data by accidentally using backspace like once a month Use a browser that will warn you about losing un-submitted form contents before navigating away? > It's especially pointless now that everyone has a touchpad or touchscreen and can swipe back and forth. I think we have very different definitions of "everyone".

> Use a browser that will warn you about losing un-submitted form contents before navigating away? Most browsers don't do this. If you see a warning like that, it's usually triggered by javascript on the web page itself.

Safari added protection for 'unsaved forms' when closing a window/tab in v3, which was released about 9 years ago.
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