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Chrome removes Backspace to go back

bugs.chromium.org

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Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#491

Post by tomc1985 »

snaky wrote: post #441
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…

> and the scariest thing for me now is that we'll lose the control we get with current FF options That seems unstoppable for a long time now. There's no browser for power users in modern world.

Wasn't there a Firefox fork that's keeping XUL and XPCOM and all that? Pale Moon?

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#492

Post by pfooti »

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?

I don't think so - I have to build javascript onBeforeUnload checks into forms manually. So: you can protect against it (mostly), but only by annoying the other users who actually do want to navigate away. It's lose-lose.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#493

Post by NDizzle »

nkoren wrote: post #258
mstade wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there are better solutions. Comment #35 in that thread actually provides one: > 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…

The web no longer consists of just static web pages and form data. I build complex web applications, which are stateful in many ways that don't involve forms (and involve things like websocket connections, etc). There's no way that the browser could possibly recreate that state by going forward. So web apps of any complexity must necessarily intercept the delete key and break its functionality. And to the extent that…

Complex web applications that have less functionality than what you are trying to replace.

Great work!!!

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#494

Post by thaumasiotes »

Arnavion wrote: post #465
stouset wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Backspace on Windows Explorer goes up one directory, not back in your history. In a not-at-all shocking turn of events, it turns out Alt-Left and Alt-Right are in fact the hotkeys for navigating backward and forward through history, so Chrome aligns perfectly with Windows Explorer in this regard.

Umm, Backspace in Windows Explorer absolutely does go back in history, unless this changed in Windows 8+ or something (testing on Windows 7 here).

It goes back in history on windows 10 too. I never actually knew that, but hey.

I definitely believe removing backspace-to-go-back in the browser is the right choice. I did know about that one, solely because every so often I do it by mistake. The problem isn't that I lose data -- I don't. The problem is that this shortcut does nothing but cause me problems I don't want. I never want the functionality, and yet it keeps happening to me anyway because it's so easy to trigger unintentionally. There's no case for this shortcut continuing to exist.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#495

Post by thaumasiotes »

emp_zealoth wrote: post #462
LoSboccacc wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeez if stellaris is considered deep what'd be your opinion on distant world: universe? Mind you I'm enjoying it but many parts fall extremely flat. Like corvette balance and topped war scores.

Apparently a game called M.O.R.E. is lurking around, promising all kinds of crazy depth (I'm super sad how bad SotS 2 was :( ) I totally agree that Stellaris kind of falls flat atm IMO - the foundation is rock solid, the game looks gorgeous and the music just blows you away...but then you play on Hard and literally nothing happens for 6 hours. Eventually a war happens and instantly degenerates into a massive my-blob-…

> Eventually a war happens and instantly degenerates into a massive my-blob-chasing-your-blob-benny-hill-nonsense :/

You might be surprised by some actual wars.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#497

Post by thaumasiotes »

CydeWeys wrote: post #371
dredmorbius wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spacebar scroll is standard on many Unix utilities, starting with pagers such as less and more. Given that paging down a screen of text is very likely to be one of the most common things you'll do, and that it's a well-established motif, as well as the fact it doesn't destroy user-state (as back-nav on backspace does), it's quite defensible. I've never actually seen someone complain about it until now.

People complain about it all the time on anything having to do with video playing, because when the video player has focus space is used to play/pause the video, but when the player is not focused, it scrolls down the page. Frankly, I would be perfectly happy if space to page went away entirely. I exclusively use two finger dragging on laptops and scroll wheels on desktops to browse websites. I never use space to mov…

I use space-to-scroll very frequently when reading long passages of text. I consider it a valuable shortcut.

I don't find it jarring at all to read that way, because I know where to resume reading after hitting space. There is one exception: a lot of websites with absolutely-positioned headers scroll incorrectly when you hit space, such that the point you would resume reading at ends up behind the header, and you have to scroll up a bit to reveal it.

A few websites with headers get it right, and your resume point is below the header after hitting space. This makes me much less sympathetic to the websites that screw it up.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#498

Post by onion2k »

PunchTornado wrote: post #432
onion2k wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why it'd be hard. "If there's a dom element that's an input of any time, and the user has focused it at any point, ask for confirmation on page exit" would work fine. The only case where I can see it being an issue would be a site that uses a select element as a menu, but I've not seen any do that in years .

I think it can easily get abused, just some hidden focused inputs

Browsers already have a pageUnload event that can block a user leaving until they confirm they want to. This would effectively be the same.

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#499

Post by mrighele »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #494
Arnavion wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Umm, Backspace in Windows Explorer absolutely does go back in history, unless this changed in Windows 8+ or something (testing on Windows 7 here).

It goes back in history on windows 10 too. I never actually knew that, but hey. I definitely believe removing backspace-to-go-back in the browser is the right choice. I did know about that one, solely because every so often I do it by mistake. The problem isn't that I lose data -- I don't. The problem is that this shortcut does nothing but cause me problems I don't want. I never want the functionality, and yet it kee…

Backspace used to go up one level up to Windows XP, if I remember correctly. Now you can go up one level with Alt+Up Arrow [1]

[1] http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/keyboard-shortcut...

Re: Chrome removes Backspace to go back

#500

Post by provemewrong »

dlitz wrote: post #363
animeweedlord wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm gonna be majorly pissed if they disable space bar scroll. I use that quite literally constantly while I'm browsing. It is the scrolling method I use 99% of the time. Backspace to go back, OTOH, I was aware of, but I doubt I ever wanted. Alt-Left is easier to use because it's less modal. Still bothers me in general when devs screw with established defaults.

Aside from it just being what you're used to, what's wrong with just having PgUp/PgDn for scrolling?

All keyboards have a spacebar. Not all keyboards today have dedicated page up/page down keys. So potentially more keystrokes due to the function layer.
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