Chrome removes Backspace to go back • Hacker News Board

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#41

Post by pflats » Thu, May 19, 2016, 12:56 PM UTC

guard-of-terra wrote: post #27

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #6

One of the contributors states: "Building an extension for this should be very simple." Why on earth isn't there just a generic keyboard-shortcut preference where I can control every possible browser action and its associated keyboard shortcut? In fact, why isn't this available at an OS level? Surely it would remove a lot of unnecessary duplicate code.

"Why on earth isn't there just a generic keyboard-shortcut preference where I can control every possible browser action and its associated keyboard shortcut? In fact, why isn't this available at an OS level?" There is one, on KDE level. Any KDE app has generic-looking hotkey remapper under settings menu. It just works.

It is also available on OS X in the Keyboard prefpane; so long as it's a menu item, it can get a shortcut.

System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Application Shortcuts -> [+]

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#42

Post by venomsnake » Thu, May 19, 2016, 12:56 PM UTC

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #6

One of the contributors states: "Building an extension for this should be very simple." Why on earth isn't there just a generic keyboard-shortcut preference where I can control every possible browser action and its associated keyboard shortcut? In fact, why isn't this available at an OS level? Surely it would remove a lot of unnecessary duplicate code.

It is chrome team we are talking about. They are the only browser that nukes all of your settings when it thinks they are tampered with and it is impossible to move profile between installations just with copying. And there is no way to disable that :( They force you to use their (useless) cloud sync.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#43

Post by jarnix » Thu, May 19, 2016, 12:58 PM UTC

Jedd wrote: post #32

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 why we're all really happy that no chrom* devs contribute to the vim project.

this was a behaviour in other browsers a long time before Chrome started...

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#44

Post by lstamour » Thu, May 19, 2016, 12:59 PM UTC

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…

It wouldn't surprise me if the defaults on OS X are the same. #2 in particular, I consider that to be sensible autofocus behavior. If you don't want to replace the URL but instead modify it, just hit an arrow key. Partly this is because there are shortcuts to select the address bar to begin with, so I rarely use a mouse. It's generally consistent on mobile platforms too, to select the entire URL. You have to hold your finger a second time to position the cursor because the most common interaction with the URL bar usually means jumping somewhere entirely different.

Edit: they could maintain a flag to change these behaviours though, if they were a concern. You could also build your own copy of the browser, patched as you wish... ;-)

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#45

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Thu, May 19, 2016, 12:59 PM UTC

mkj wrote: post #35

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #6

One of the contributors states: "Building an extension for this should be very simple." Why on earth isn't there just a generic keyboard-shortcut preference where I can control every possible browser action and its associated keyboard shortcut? In fact, why isn't this available at an OS level? Surely it would remove a lot of unnecessary duplicate code.

Yeah, it is an OS level thing on OSX. "Quit Chrome" mapped to cmd-shift-control-something-Q instead, for example. As long as it has a menu item to match on.

Of course it does. For some reason, I always forget about this - maybe it's because it doesn't work in the most-intuitive way (hunt down system prefs pane, enter menu text exactly as it appears), but it's good to know they're trying to make this work. Unfortunately, backspace is one of the keys that can't be used as a shortcut.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#46

Post by cptskippy » Thu, May 19, 2016, 12:59 PM UTC

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…

I'm primarily on Windows and that first feature annoys the heck out of me. I would rather scrolling stop or continue, but the snap-back when the mouse leaves a zone is irritating.

I think the second is more of an optimization because when you click on the address bar you're most likely either copying or overwriting the URL. It's much less common to modify it.

If you want a supremely annoying address bar, you should check out Windows File Explorer from Vista/7 onward. Each component of the URI is a drop down menu item and only by clicking on whitespace to the far right can you get to the actual URI.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#47

Post by optforfon » Thu, May 19, 2016, 12:59 PM UTC

davb wrote: post #37

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #6

One of the contributors states: "Building an extension for this should be very simple." Why on earth isn't there just a generic keyboard-shortcut preference where I can control every possible browser action and its associated keyboard shortcut? In fact, why isn't this available at an OS level? Surely it would remove a lot of unnecessary duplicate code.

They really don't like preferences. I remember before Chrome's new preferences page it seemed to have many more options. I called them out on a few important ones disappearing and the answer was always "Not many people use those, and they confuse new users". For a long while it was impossible to view TLS cert information on Chrome Mobile. One day they just disabled the UI for it. Too confusing for new users if they s…

Same thing with Firefox. It's really frustrating. The options are incredibly sparse. I feel like there is a complete lack of creativity on the part of browser developers are to features that it'd be nice to have

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#48

Post by rayiner » Thu, May 19, 2016, 1:01 PM UTC

jamespo wrote: post #22

rayiner wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lose form data by accidentally using backspace like once a month. Glad to see it go. It's the worst kind of UI modality because it does different things depending on whether you've reached the beginning of the form. I like to mash backspace to clear out a form. Imagine if pressing "CTRL-S" saved if there were edits, but deleted your file if you'd already saved. People who mash "CTRL-S" habitually would be screwed.…

Well apart from the millions of desktop PCs out there. One thing I like about my venerable x220 is the dedicated forward & backward keys that can also be used to switch buffers in emacs etc.

Even those often have a mouse with back and forward buttons.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#49

Post by optforfon » Thu, May 19, 2016, 1:01 PM UTC

Anyone want to place bets on how long till Firefox copies them?

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#50

Post by EdSharkey » Thu, May 19, 2016, 1:04 PM UTC

This feels a bit like how Esc was nerfed over the years in Firefox and others until it essentially did nothing. It used to mean STOP. All sockets were closed, the page stopped loading, and I think way waaay back, even animated gifs stopped cycling and JavaScript timeouts and intervals were cancelled.

Single-page webapps were the death of Esc, it was too confusing to users to have a page suddenly hang because they pressed Esc for some reason and all the XHR connections silently closed. "Stopping" just no longer made sense.

Just going to need to train the old timers on the new key strokes. It is sad though when convenient controls are taken away.