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Chrome removes Backspace to go back

bugs.chromium.org

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Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#211

Post by chongli »

Tyr42 wrote: post #185
greyfox wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the name of the feature is called "breadcrumbs" and i also dont like it very much, as one poster stated it is nice to go up several levels without making many clicks but i prefer to see the entire URI and be able to modify it as oppose to breadcrumb "directory buttons"

If you click to the right of everything, then it turns into a textbox and you can modify it at will.

Which doesn't help in the most common case (for me): editing down a URL that's way too long on sites that love to jam absolutely everything they can think of into a query string, extending the URL many screen widths out to the right.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#212

Post by danielweber »

RussianCow wrote: post #145
johns wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This should really be a global setting in OS X. I find myself accidentally hitting Cmd+Q all the time, not just for the web browser.

A while back while looking for solution to this, someone told me a way to map splat-Q to "invert video," which is a great way of training yourself out of hittig splat-Q.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#213

Post by RGamma »

floatboth wrote: post #186

Good. I always set browser.backspace_action to do nothing in Firefox, because this is SO infuriating. You think you have a text field focused but you actually don't (e.g. accidental mouse click removed the focus), you press Backspace and BOOM! suddenly you're on the previous page. Ctrl/Cmd+[ and ] is the real shortcut!

I'm quite the opposite opinion and use Backspace to go back extensively, because it means that I can browse the web with one hand on my laptop with trackpoint.

If you're accidently clicking on things, maybe learn to use a mouse better.

P.S.: Oh and if it's a crappy touchpad making unwanted inputs, then I share your concern (and probably a good time to look at other laptop keyboards; turning off the touchpad on this Lenovo was among the first things I did). But still, they really should make this an option...

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#214

Post by retox »

27182818284 wrote: post #148
Jedd wrote: post #25

Chrome / Chromium have a habit of making these arbitrary changes that seriously annoy some (arguably small) percentage of their users, while claiming that it makes it simpler / better for everyone else, while explaining impatiently why it's infeasible to make the now missing feature a configuration option. Evidently the kinds of people that can't be bothered going into the Advanced Configuration Settings page would b…

The backspace thing has gotten attention more than ever on sites like Reddit. I have routinely seen posts complaining about it and the spacebar key doing behaviors that users never ever intended. For example, pressing space and then accidentally scrolling down which wasn't their intention at all, but is the behavior of space. I think some of those complaints reaching the front page of reddit may have helped spur this…

The tyranny of the vocal minority.

It's a race to the bottom.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#215

Post by cpeterso »

kijin wrote: post #169
qb45 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they switched it back at some time. I remember changing it from 1 or 2 to 0 on few installations.

It seems like 0 (go back) has always been the default on Windows builds. On Linux it used to be 1 (scroll up) but they changed it to 2 (do nothing) in 2006. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.backspace_action I made a half-assed attempt to migrate my Windows Firefox profile to Linux a while ago, which probably explains why I'm seeing the Windows behavior on both platforms :(

There was a Firefox patch posted just last week to make Linux's backspace key behave like Windows and OS X:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=986982#c6

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#216

Post by kbenson »

malz wrote: post #190
crzwdjk wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Giant web forms have been a usability disaster since day one. Accidental back button, link click, window close, session timeout, etc, increase the chance of a failure and need to re-enter the entire form. Whereas for at least 40 years desktop software has given you a "sure you don't want to save?" option.

I've lost HN comment data 10-15 minutes into a reply by using a laptop with an overly sensitive touchpad. Multiple times. Not something I particularly enjoy, and that's just a single input field.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#217

Post by dflock »

undersuit wrote: post #202
Jedd wrote: post #25

Chrome / Chromium have a habit of making these arbitrary changes that seriously annoy some (arguably small) percentage of their users, while claiming that it makes it simpler / better for everyone else, while explaining impatiently why it's infeasible to make the now missing feature a configuration option. Evidently the kinds of people that can't be bothered going into the Advanced Configuration Settings page would b…

Yeah #2 selects the whole content visually, but it doesn't put the contents into the primary buffer, very annoying.

This was done deliberately after lots of user uproar - it used to auto select the contents of the URL bar AND set the primary selection. This meant that anytime you did anything with the URL bar, it would wipe your primary selection, which was pretty annoying.

What Linux users wanted was for it to behave normally - i.e. not auto select, but set primary selection if you selected something in the URL. The auto select was apparently non-negotiable, so we ended up with the current compromise.

It does set the primary selection if you manually select some/all of the URL though.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#218

Post by Aldo_MX »

ygra wrote: post #90
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.

We're creatures of habit. In this case it's a behaviour that existed for two decades or so. Sure, it doesn't make much sense, but the same goes for various functions of the middle mouse button, depending on context: open new tab, close tab, open new application, close window, scroll, paste. Yet you don't see anyone changing those.

> Yet you don't see anyone changing those.

Except for (guess who?) Chromium...

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=255

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#219

Post by stevetrewick »

mrweasel wrote: post #74
douche wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's infuriating trying to highlight anything in Outlook. Oh, you're dragging to select part of a word, or a huge long URI? Let me go ahead and automatically expand your selection to cover the entire token, with the trailing whitespace. Haha, you're trying to circumvent my helpfulness by setting the cursor and shift-right-arrowing? Haha, no soup for you! Break down and copy it into notepad instead!

> with the trailing whitespace. Worst feature EVER. I can't begin count how many times I've had the following talk with users: user: My password doesn't work me: Did you copy it from Outlook?

If you're emailing users' passwords you've got bigger problems than a bit of trailing white space.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#220

Post by lima »

RGamma wrote: post #213
floatboth wrote: post #186

Good. I always set browser.backspace_action to do nothing in Firefox, because this is SO infuriating. You think you have a text field focused but you actually don't (e.g. accidental mouse click removed the focus), you press Backspace and BOOM! suddenly you're on the previous page. Ctrl/Cmd+[ and ] is the real shortcut!

I'm quite the opposite opinion and use Backspace to go back extensively, because it means that I can browse the web with one hand on my laptop with trackpoint. If you're accidently clicking on things, maybe learn to use a mouse better. P.S.: Oh and if it's a crappy touchpad making unwanted inputs, then I share your concern (and probably a good time to look at other laptop keyboards; turning off the touchpad on this L…

I used to, now I just do a right click -> Back. Zero effort with a trackpoint thankfully.
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