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Chrome removes Backspace to go back

bugs.chromium.org

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Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#421

Post by logicallee »

I'm a bit late to the party (already 408 comments) but, guys, here is an example of what happens currently in many browsers:

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CURRENT DEFAULT "BACKSPACE" BEHAVIOR IN MANY BROWSERS:

https://imgur.com/V5FHZOH

(this example is not prescriptive, it's just what happens)

At any rate, the GIF shows the current situation. You should watch it.

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MY COMMENTS:

I actually wrote to this app creator that they should throw up a confirmation window ( like these https://www.google.com/search?q=confirm+navigation&tbm=isch )

but the fact is that the browser is the one that decided to navigate away. Now what's very interesting, is that even in this, HN's, thread we have people saying "Yes!!!" and people saying "No!!!" to the change.

So people who simply have never used backspace for navigation, like me, have many times accidentally touched backspace or thought we were focused on a form, and ended up losing data (because the page didn't throw up a confirmation window after navigating back, and after clicking forward the page is blank again.) While other people, who have no convenient single key they can use to navigate back, have come to rely on it. I'm not sure what the solution is, but here's the current situation so everyone understands it.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#423

Post by meatcider »

stouset wrote: post #386
ultramancool wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because they do impose a constant and non-trivial burden on everyone else (especially in cases like backspace which are relatively easy to hit on accident). So make them an option and stop taking the Chrome route of stripping out everything that more advanced users use regularly. Of course, this is why I run Firefox. I can do things like force OCSP enabled and get error pages when it fails - Chrome's solution was t…

There's a cost to this too, in terms of development effort. Yeah, one option isn't a big deal, but multiply this by the gajillion times that developers have to make a choice between something 99% of their users want. Backspace-as-back-button is not an "advanced feature". It's a hotkey that essentially no other software uses for the same behavior and one which conflicts crappily with the fundamental behavior of that k…

> It's a hotkey that essentially no other software uses for the same behavior

Except for Windows Explorer, but who uses that, eh?

Your level of empathy is immaterial to the conversation, but thanks for sharing.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#424

Post by cyxxon »

ajnin wrote: post #222
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…

Reminds me of the "flaw of averages" article [1] that was posted here a few month back. This seems like a general attitude in Google products features development, they try to find the simplest set of features that will please the most users, but that set probably doesn't exist, each user needs their own tweaks, and in the end their product becomes less useful for everyone. [1] https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/20…

That page is not readable in Germany: ERROR. The request could not be satisfied. The Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to block access from your country.

Any idea what could block it? Never seen this before...

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#425

Post by ruipgil »

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?

That kind of control is in the hands of the webapp.

For instance if I close this tab, where I'm typing the comment, there will be no prompt. Whereas facebook will prompt me if truly want to leave the page.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#426

Post by theOnliest »

djrogers wrote: post #362
mstade wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah, that's funny! But also, comment #35 is on point: > The problem: Moving away from a form can result in data loss. > Your solution: Make it harder to move away. > The correct solution: Cache tab history completely and make it easy to move forward and backward in a tab's history by reusing cache and maintaining form contents. (Source: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608016... ) I never have th…

> I never have this problem in Safari, and I use backspace all the time for navigating back. That's funny, because I've got a brand new install of El Cap in from top me, and backspace does nothing in Safari. Maybe you turned on an option or accessibility feature somewhere?

Ditto...this (along with the fact that the width of tabs expands to fill the entire bar) is one of the main reasons I stopped using Safari and went back to Firefox.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#427

Post by SilasX »

rayiner wrote: post #13
gjvc wrote: post #2

This is most annoying. I have used this for the past twenty years and have not lost form data using it. In any event, chrome seems to remember form contents upon navigating back to a form page. Leave my muscle memory alone please.

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.…

To this day, I still regularly copy posts to the clipboard before submitting them, because of all the times I've been burned hitting the wrong button and losing it. (Losing the post, not my sanity! Well, that too, actually.)

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#429

Post by ryanlol »

azinman2 wrote: post #358
ryanlol wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with that attitude? Given the lack of alternatives being offered that seems like a perfectly acceptable complaint.

Given lol is in your username I can't tell if you're trolling or serious...

Oh I'm entirely serious. Obviously nobody thinks that nobody else has ever lost data by accidentally pressing backspace, but I think most people can agree that it's simply not a good enough reason to completely remove such an established feature.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#430

Post by iopq »

Jtsummers wrote: post #382
makapuf wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe like just disable it if there is something to lose ie there is a form and I entered something in it with the keyboard

That would be worse. Then the expected behavior (that backspace would navigate back) wouldn't occur because I'm filling in this form. Even though I've left the field (so backspace is captured by the tab and not the form field) and have decided to abandon the comment and go back to reading the thread.

you can just say "Cancel" or "Navigate away" in the dialog that comes up

if you have written a long paragraph it shouldn't just be lost because you accidentally pressed a key on your keyboard

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