276689 - current page unusable while firefox is in the process of loading next one

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Xiaodi Wu]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

When visiting any page and then, for example, clicking on a link to another
page, the current page is rendered effectively unusable while the new page is
being loaded, even though the current page is still on screen. This behaviour
seems to have changed from previous versions of Firefox, but I can't find a
record of any bugs being filed that might have prompted the change, or any bugs
about the change.

Currently, while the new page is being downloaded, I can left-click on other
links in the current page, which will stop the new page from being loaded and
load a different one instead, but I can no longer middle-click to any effect. I
can force the view to scroll up or down by selecting the text, but cannot use
the scrollbars.

This behaviour is not what it used to be in previous versions of Firefox. In
previous versions, while a new page was being loaded, but before it was rendered
on screen, I could continue to use the current page (I could open links in new
tabs, scroll, etc.)

While there may seem to be a simple workaround (back/forward), this is not
effective precisely because the issue is only really felt on slow-loading sites.
This has an especial impact on sites such as Wikipedia, where there is a lot of
information on the page (stuff I may want to read/links I want to open in new
tabs), but where pages may at times load slowly.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to any site, especially one that may load slowly at times (e.g. wikipedia.org)
2. Go to a page with some links.
3. Left-click on a link to open in the same window
4. Before the new page starts rendering, try to scroll on the old page, or
middle-click on other hyperlinks

Actual Results:  
Nothing!

Expected Results:  
Scroll and/or open links in new tabs, or other actions

Comment 1

[Chris Blore]

I have noticed this as well but I'm not sure that this will be fixed because
most people will open a new tab if they want to open a new link because that is
one of the greatly touted features of Firefox.

Comment 2

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 3

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.