Bugzilla

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #3)

Hi Walt, thanks for looking into this bug and all your help with triage!

> Pressing the Delete key on the keyboard for too long does delete multiple emails in succession as it does for any file in an application and the operating systems File manager.

I've rarely seen "files in an application" other than file managers. I don't recall ever deleting 'items' which are not part of text with long keypress.
Windows 10 File Explorer does *not* allow deleting multiple files sequentially by selecting the first file and holding down Delete key. Instead, the next file will be focused, but not selected - which in turn prevents the deletion.
That looks like a safe and reasonable behaviour to me - uncontrolled deletions by holding down a deletion key may work for text and small items like recipient pills (which are text-ish, and typically easy to restore), but not for bigger and more important items like entire files or messages (harder or even impossible to restore). Instead, to delete multiple items safely, just select them first and then press `Delete`.

> I don't think there is anything here for Thunderbird to fix.

Looking at some similar bugs on record, I do think we should fix this in terms of ux-error-prevention - most actions which are repeated in an uncontrolled manner do not really make sense, and we can even run into issues as we're not expecting that (see `A` shortcut bug below).

Bug 1705824 - Holding down the A key for repeated archiving results in lots of extra blank messages in Archive, and corruption of Undo (POP3 only)
Bug 622305 - Holding one second Ctrl+O (Open Message) or Ctrl+N (New message) creates 30+ duplicate tabs or composition windows (too long, multiple, a lot of, many...)

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #3)

Hi Walt, thanks for looking into this bug and all your help with triage!

> Pressing the Delete key on the keyboard for too long does delete multiple emails in succession as it does for any file in an application and the operating systems File manager.

I've rarely seen "files in an application" other than file managers. I don't recall ever deleting *`items`* which are not part of text with long keypress.
Windows 10 File Explorer does *not* allow deleting multiple files sequentially by selecting the first file and holding down Delete key. Instead, the next file will be focused, but not selected - which in turn prevents the deletion.
That looks like a safe and reasonable behaviour to me - uncontrolled deletions by holding down a deletion key may work for text and small items like recipient pills (which are text-ish, and typically easy to restore), but not for bigger and more important items like entire files or messages (harder or even impossible to restore). Instead, to delete multiple items safely, just select them first and then press `Delete`.

> I don't think there is anything here for Thunderbird to fix.

Looking at some similar bugs on record, I do think we should fix this in terms of ux-error-prevention - most actions which are repeated in an uncontrolled manner do not really make sense, and we can even run into issues as we're not expecting that (see `A` shortcut bug below).

Bug 1705824 - Holding down the A key for repeated archiving results in lots of extra blank messages in Archive, and corruption of Undo (POP3 only)
Bug 622305 - Holding one second Ctrl+O (Open Message) or Ctrl+N (New message) creates 30+ duplicate tabs or composition windows (too long, multiple, a lot of, many...)