179377 - Enter followed by Backspace changes language from Hebrew to English in RTL textarea

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Layout: Text and Fonts, defect, P4)

Description

[Yaron]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.2b) Gecko/20021016
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.2b) Gecko/20021016

When typing text in a textarea and the cursor is in Hebrew mode, if you press
enter and then backspace, the input language changes to English. Happens both in
RTL and LTR textareas.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:



Expected Results:  
Stay in Hebrew input mode.

Comment 1

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

this could be editor:core instead... cc'ing kin

Comment 2

[Thamer Mahmoud]

Confirming on WindowsXP (2002110108)


I can also reproduce this in an Input field. Just type some Hebrew text then
press the left arrow key once.


Bug 162242 and Bug 163243 are also related.

Comment 3

[Simon Montagu :smontagu]

Confirming and taking. In an LTR textarea this is possibly not a bug, but it
shouldn't happen in RTL.

What is the exact case described in comment 2? Again, if the left arrow is
moving the cursor across LTR text (which includes a space between LTR and RTL
text if the textarea is LTR), then the input language is expected to change to
English.

Comment 4

[Thamer Mahmoud]

Sorry for not being more specific. I was referring to LTR Input field (or
textarea) with no mixed content. Now for RTL it's the exact opposite. Type an
English-only text (eg "foo") then hit the *right* arrow key. The result is an
unnecessary input switch to Hebrew/Arabic.

Those bugs I've mentioned are all similar, and deal with the same problem, IMHO.

Why is Mozilla constantly trying to switch the language input to match the
document's direction? The switching is quite annoying as it happens unexpectedly
and is almost always unnecessary (since it defeats the purpose of having an
input hotkey). The only exception that this auto switching is actually useful is
the case that you just mentioned in your comment.

Comment 5

[Prognathous]

Thamer:

> Why is Mozilla constantly trying to switch the language input to match the
> document's direction? The switching is quite annoying as it happens 
> unexpectedly and is almost always unnecessary (since it defeats the purpose 
> of having an input hotkey).

I can't agree with you more.

It seems that Mozilla is trying to mimic MS-Word and Wordpad, instead of IE, 
Notepad an almost every other Windows application.
The first two keep changing the input language in the most unexpected places, 
while the latter applications leave this control to the user.

In my opinion, this "feature" should be removed, although I'm not sure that 
this is the right bug...

Prog.

Comment 6

[Prognathous]

Mozilla also switches the language to English in the following scenarios:

1. Focus on an empty textarea and type a single Hebrew character.
2. Press Backspace twice.

Result: the language changes to English.


1. Using Hebrew input, focus on an empty textarea and type a digit, then space.
2. Press Backspace twice.

Result: the language changes to English (and even worse - the digit is not deleted).

Are these quirks mentioned in other Bugs?

The easiest solution to all of these bugs is to completely remove the
auto-language switch. Native Windows widgets don't have it, so why should
Mozilla have it's own standard?

BTW, this mechanism is not implemented in the BeOS version of Mozilla and the
result is a better experience for end-users (which is absurd really, unlike
Windows, BeOS doesn't natively support Hebrew...)

Prog.

Here are a couple of test URLs: 
Visual Hebrew: http://forums.ort.org.il/scripts/addform.asp?which_forum=30
Logical Hebrew:
http://www.mentor.org.il/mb/mentor/post.shtml

Comment 7

[Eyal Ben-Simon]

The solution? In my opinion, autodetect lang. mode, (bidiv),
or at least support manually on changing languages,
Force RTL or Force LTR with the CTRL+SHIFT like in MS Windows (TM).

Comment 8

[Prognathous]

> The solution? In my opinion, autodetect lang. mode, (bidiv),

You mean detect the currently used input method (HE/EN)? what will this
information be used for?

> or at least support manually on changing languages,

You can manually switch languages when using Mozilla, the problem is that
Mozilla also tends do it for you, when you don't expect it to.

> Force RTL or Force LTR with the CTRL+SHIFT like in MS Windows (TM).

This is Bug 98160 ("Can't change alignment/directionality in a textarea"), it is
not related to input method switching.

Prog.

PS.
You are welcome to continue this discussion in Mozilla Israeli forums:
http://mozilla.org.il/board

Comment 9

[Prognathous]

The fix for bug 162242 also solved this one. Marking as WORKSFORME.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7a) Gecko/20040105

Prog.

Comment 10

[(no longer active)]

Mass-assigning the new rtl keyword to RTL-related (see bug 349193).