This is an interesting scenario. I'll try to break down all of the considerations that went into this and we can have a discussion about this. --- #### Why we do not allow Select Translations while Full Page Translations is active Firstly, I should mention that there isn't any technical reason why we _cannot_ do this. In fact, I've disabled the restriction in my local build of the code and then used Select Translations to translate the example here while Full Page Translations was active too (see attached screenshot). But Select Translations is currently disabled for a few reasons, based on my recollection: 1) When Dasha and I first looked at this, we considered what other browsers do as part of the decision here. I _thought_ that we had discovered that some other browsers do not allow Select Translation while Full Page Translation is active, but I just tried this exact scenario in Chrome and Safari and was able to do it. 2) There are some things to consider when this is allowed. Primarily, in most cases (but not this case), the selected text would give you a translation of a translation, which will not always produce the highest-quality result. 3) There is also the question of what to do with the "Translate full page" button within the Select Translations panel while Full Page Translation is already active. For example, if I translate a page from French to German, and then I translate a selection of the translated-from-French German text to Spanish, then the state of my Select Translation Panel (STP) would be German to Spanish. This is fine within the context of the STP, however clicking the "Translate full page" button would then attempt to translate a French page using a German-to-Spanish translation model, resulting in garbage. --- #### Conclusion Overall, however, I'm thinking that we should revisit our decision to disallow Select Translations while Full Page Translations is active, particularly because it is useful in scenarios such as this one. I think the best behavior here may actually be to allow Select Translations in this scenario, but either disable or entirely hide the "Translate full page" button if Full Page Translation is already active. I think it would be too late to get this into Firefox 128, but I think that we could implement this for Firefox 129. @Dasha @Greg thoughts?
Bug 1901455 Comment 2 Edit History
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This is an interesting scenario. I'll try to break down all of the considerations that went into this and we can have a discussion about this. --- #### Why we do not allow Select Translations while Full Page Translations is active Firstly, I should mention that there isn't any technical reason why we _cannot_ do this. In fact, I've disabled the restriction in my local build of the code and then used Select Translations to translate the example here while Full Page Translations was active too (see attached screenshot). But Select Translations is currently disabled for a few reasons, based on my recollection: 1) When Dasha and I first looked at this, we considered what other browsers do as part of the decision here. I _thought_ that we had discovered that some other browsers do not allow Select Translation while Full Page Translation is active, but I just tried this exact scenario in Chrome and Safari and was able to do it. 2) Another consideration if this were allowed is that in most cases (but not this case), the selected text would give you a translation of a translation, which will not always produce the highest-quality result. 3) There is also the question of what to do with the "Translate full page" button within the Select Translations panel while Full Page Translation is already active. For example, if I translate a page from French to German, and then I translate a selection of the translated-from-French German text to Spanish, then the state of my Select Translation Panel (STP) would be German to Spanish. This is fine within the context of the STP, however clicking the "Translate full page" button would then attempt to translate a French page using a German-to-Spanish translation model, resulting in garbage. --- #### Conclusion Overall, however, I'm thinking that we should revisit our decision to disallow Select Translations while Full Page Translations is active, particularly because it is useful in scenarios such as this one. I think the best behavior here may actually be to allow Select Translations in this scenario, but either disable or entirely hide the "Translate full page" button if Full Page Translation is already active. I think it would be too late to get this into Firefox 128, but I think that we could implement this for Firefox 129. @Dasha @Greg thoughts?
This is an interesting scenario. I'll try to break down all of the considerations that went into this and we can have a discussion about this. --- #### Why we do not allow Select Translations while Full Page Translations (FPT) is active Firstly, I should mention that there isn't any technical reason why we _cannot_ do this. In fact, I've disabled the restriction in my local build of the code and then used Select Translations to translate the example here while FPT was active too (see attached screenshot). But Select Translations is currently disabled for a few reasons, based on my recollection: 1) When Dasha and I first looked at this, we considered what other browsers do as part of the decision here. I _thought_ that we had discovered that some other browsers do not allow Select Translation while Full Page Translation is active, but I just tried this exact scenario in Chrome and Safari and was able to do it. 2) Another consideration if this were allowed is that in most cases (but not this case), the selected text would give you a translation of a translation, which will not always produce the highest-quality result. 3) There is also the question of what to do with the "Translate full page" button within the Select Translations Panel (STP) while Full Page Translation (FPT) is already active. For example, if I translate a page from French to German, and then I translate a selection of the translated-from-French German text to Spanish, then the state of my STP would be German to Spanish. This is fine within the context of the STP, however clicking the "Translate full page" button would then attempt to translate a French page using a German-to-Spanish translation model, resulting in garbage. --- #### Conclusion Overall, however, I'm thinking that we should revisit our decision to disallow Select Translations while FPT is active, particularly because it is useful in scenarios such as this one. I think the best behavior here may actually be to allow Select Translations in this scenario, but either disable or entirely hide the "Translate full page" button if Full Page Translation is already active. I think it would be too late to get this into Firefox 128, but I think that we could implement this for Firefox 129. @Dasha @Greg thoughts?
This is an interesting scenario. I'll try to break down all of the considerations that went into this and we can have a discussion about this. --- #### Why we do not allow Select Translations Panel (STP) while Full Page Translations (FPT) is active Firstly, I should mention that there isn't any technical reason why we _cannot_ do this. In fact, I've disabled the restriction in my local build of the code and then used STP to translate the example here while FPT was active too (see attached screenshot). But STP is currently disabled in this scenario for a few reasons, based on my recollection: 1) When Dasha and I first looked at this, we considered what other browsers do as part of the decision here. I _thought_ that we had discovered that some other browsers do not allow Select Translation while Full Page Translation is active, but I just tried this exact scenario in Chrome and Safari and was able to do it. 2) Another consideration if this were allowed is that in most cases (but not this case), the selected text would give you a translation of a translation, which will not always produce the highest-quality result. 3) There is also the question of what to do with the "Translate full page" button within the STP while Full Page Translation (FPT) is already active. For example, if I translate a page from French to German, and then I translate a selection of the translated-from-French German text to Spanish, then the state of my STP would be German to Spanish. This is fine within the context of the STP, however clicking the "Translate full page" button would then attempt to translate a French page using a German-to-Spanish translation model, resulting in garbage. --- #### Conclusion Overall, however, I'm thinking that we should revisit our decision to disallow STP while FPT is active, particularly because it is useful in scenarios such as this one. I think the best behavior here may actually be to allow STP in this scenario, but either disable or entirely hide the "Translate full page" button if Full Page Translation is already active. I think it would be too late to get this into Firefox 128, but I think that we could implement this for Firefox 129. @Dasha @Greg thoughts?