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Just let me select text

aartaka.me

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Re: Just let me select text

#151

Post by encom »

nixosbestos wrote: post #89

Airbnb hosts that put textual descriptions with the address, and it only lets you copy the full text. Google Messages doesn't let you select OTP out of the text, you literally have to copy paste it to Gmail, then copy the code out. Android has a nice feature though, you can go into multitask view and hit "Select" and select any visible text for copy. Except that WHATSAPP BLOCKS IT FOR BUSINESS ACCOUNTS. You know, the…

>I hate tech so much, it makes me irrationally angry.

One moment you're rage-posting on HackerNews, next you're authoring a manifesto on a typewriter in a remote cabin in the woods.

Re: Just let me select text

#152

Post by fkyoureadthedoc »

Arainach wrote: post #82
catapart wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

isn't selectable because it breaks the UX for keyboard-only users. Has nothing to do with "thinking" anything. It's about testing with accessibility parameters and knowing* what practical problems occur. If you really need to translate ONE WORD, it's not that onerous to type it. You're bringing edge-case hypotheticals to a discussion about practical functionality.

>not that onerous to type it If the word uses the exact character set on your keyboard, sure. How am I going to type Kanji?

by pointing your phone at it

by screenshotting it and copying the text out of the screenshot

by putting a screenshot itself into chatgpt

I'm curious what real world scenario you've imagined yourself in with a kanji button that you don't understand within the rest of a website in kanji that you do understand, but don't know how to type kanji?

Re: Just let me select text

#154

Post by harshreality »

bobbylarrybobby wrote: post #114
catapart wrote: post #21

As a web dev, I fully agree with this, but with a huge exception: clickable text. Anything that is meant to be read as content should absolutely, without fail, be selectable and copyable (assuming appropriate permissions). But stuff like tab headers, buttons, or even text-sparse tiles - things meant for the user to click on - can, and usually should , prevent text selection. It is super annoying to be clicking back a…

It's always bothered me that links on webpages are single click to open. They should require double clicking to open (like just about everything else on a computer) and single click should be used to start selecting text, like everywhere else on a computer.

When you run an app from the taskbar or start menu, you single-click on the app icon, or single-click on the Start menu button and then single-click on the app.

Sure, icons on the desktop, or just about anything in a file/app explorer window, require a double-click by default, because the lineage of the main desktop area is just a file explorer window without the window decorations.

I think it might be about stakeholders wanting the web to "feel" more native and interactive. Double-clicking to "go" feels too much like you're interacting with the web as if it's a file browser. They want it to feel more immediate?

In principle I'd prefer the consistency of double-click or double-tap everywhere, but I'm used to adjusting based on context. Wouldn't double-tapping annoy everyone who primarily uses mobile devices?

Re: Just let me select text

#155

Post by catapart »

petsfed wrote: post #110
catapart wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

isn't selectable because it breaks the UX for keyboard-only users. Has nothing to do with "thinking" anything. It's about testing with accessibility parameters and knowing* what practical problems occur. If you really need to translate ONE WORD, it's not that onerous to type it. You're bringing edge-case hypotheticals to a discussion about practical functionality.

Yeah, because fuck people who require additional accessibility options, right? On top of the real concerns around otherwise selectable text in a writing system not supported by the user's keyboard, there's also the issue of whether or not they can even operate enough of a keyboard to transcribe whatever text they want to translate.

[flagged]

Re: Just let me select text

#156

Post by ertgbnm »

setgree wrote: post #56

I wonder if Bumble/Hinge/etc. set profiles to be non-searchable as a kind of minimum barrier to doxxing. I have many objections to modern dating apps [0], but there's an actual tradeoff/problem here that they're trying to deal with. I don't think that uploading a screenshot to ChatGPT/Claude to figure out the translation is an unreasonable ask. [0] https://setharielgreen.com/blog/date-me-docs-obviously/

This may be the "reason" that they use but I doubt they have done any testing to show that it provides any level of protection and just makes their app less useable. Sounding like a good reason doesn't make it a good reason.

Re: Just let me select text

#157

Post by Reubachi »

litver wrote: post #65
oscaracso wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was not implied by the post.

The post implied the opposite. However, if the German girl writes in German, probably she wants to date in German, the dating platform follows her wish by making it hard to extract the text, translate it, and eventually waste her time.

This is not at all the point of un-selecatable text development.

I don't even want to ask how you came to this example.

Every day this forum becomes more like reddit.

Re: Just let me select text

#158

Post by xnx »

bobbylarrybobby wrote: post #114
catapart wrote: post #21

As a web dev, I fully agree with this, but with a huge exception: clickable text. Anything that is meant to be read as content should absolutely, without fail, be selectable and copyable (assuming appropriate permissions). But stuff like tab headers, buttons, or even text-sparse tiles - things meant for the user to click on - can, and usually should , prevent text selection. It is super annoying to be clicking back a…

It's always bothered me that links on webpages are single click to open. They should require double clicking to open (like just about everything else on a computer) and single click should be used to start selecting text, like everywhere else on a computer.

Why would you take the most common interaction on the web and change it to require double the actions with very specific timing?

If consistency between systems is more important than usability, it probably makes more sense to use single click to open in the OS (which has been an option in Windows for 30 years).

Re: Just let me select text

#159

Post by cosmic_cheese »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #29
magnio wrote: post #7

On Android, long press home button activates Google Assistant that can OCR the current screen and translate immediately. Unironically one of the only two features keeping me on Android until now.

On iOS 26 you can do basically the same thing. Take a screenshot (power button + volume up), click the thumbnail of the screenshot that appears. You'll see the screenshot full screen and there is a 'translate' button (along some other AI stuff).

macOS does this, too, along with other text manipulation features in screenshots and arbitrary image and video files opened in Preview, QuickTime Player (and apps using an embedded player), and Safari. High quality, local, system-provided OCR is a godsend sometimes.

Re: Just let me select text

#160

Post by klausa »

fkyoureadthedoc wrote: post #152
Arainach wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>not that onerous to type it If the word uses the exact character set on your keyboard, sure. How am I going to type Kanji?

by pointing your phone at it by screenshotting it and copying the text out of the screenshot by putting a screenshot itself into chatgpt I'm curious what real world scenario you've imagined yourself in with a kanji button that you don't understand within the rest of a website in kanji that you do understand, but don't know how to type kanji?

Would you say any of these are "not that onerous" compared to copying the character?

The argument here isn't that it's _impossible_ to do that with copying disabled, it's that it's _more annoying_.

By providing a list of _more annoying_ ways to do something, you're reinforcing the argument, not refuting it.

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