124622 - Improve guess logic when keypress occurs in listbox/pulldown

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core Graveyard :: Image: Painting, defect, P4)

Description

[The Cunctator]

At least on a Macintosh, the behavior when typing in a listbox (such as the
Component list on the Browser bug entry page) is not as expected. (Note that
when I say 'letter' below I mean any character that can be typed.)

A) Typing in a letter goes to the first following option starting with that
letter, instead of the first occuring option.

For example: in the Component listbox, select 'Bookmarks' by clicking on it.
Type 'B'. 
Result: 'Browser-General', the next in the list, is selected.
Expected behavior: 'BiDi Hebrew & Arabic', the first 'B' in the list, is selected.

B) Typing in a letter for which no option begins does nothing, instead of moving
to the closest option.

For example: in the Component listbox, select 'Bookmarks' by clicking on it.
Type 'A'.
Result: nothing.
Expected behavior: 'BiDi Hebrew & Arabic', the first 'B' in the list (as there
are no 'A's), is selected.

Similarly if 'Z' is typed, 'XSLT', the last option in the list, as there are no
'Z's, should be selected.

Also, if 'G' is typed, 'Help' should be selected, as it is the first option
following 'G' in the list.

(Order of rules for expected behavior:)
1. If any options begin with letter typed, move to the first such option
2. Else, if any options begin with a letter following the one typed, move to the
first such option
3. Else, move to the last option on the list.

C) A series of letters typed to move within the list is treated as separate
commands, instead of as a group.
To reproduce:
1. Type "bo" with normal typing speed
Result:
1. 'Bidi Hebrew & Arabic' is selected when 'b' is typed,
2. 'OJI' is selected when 'o' is typed.
Expected result:
1. 'BiDi Hebrew & Arabic' is selected when 'b' is typed,
2. 'Bookmarks' is selected when 'o' is typed.

I believe the mac considers a series of letters typed in to be a single string
unless there is a pause of about a second between the letter entry. It may be
related to the repeat delay rate which is a control panel/system pref option.

Comment 1

[The Cunctator]

Oops, when doing the testing accidentally set this to OJI. Sorry.

Comment 2

[Patty Mac]

I am not a qa contact for HTML form controls. Reassign.

Comment 3

[Greg K.]

Confirming that keypresses in listboxes don't work unless an item exists that
starts with the letter that was pressed. If no item is found that starts with
the letter that was pressed, the next nearest item alphabetically should be
selected.

Revising Summary.

Comment 4

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

*** Bug 140211 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 5

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

I suggest implementing this XP, not just on OSX

Comment 6

[The Cunctator]

Adding "pulldown" to summary, as pulldown menus should also be able to handle
the correct typing (bug 140211).

Comment 7

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

*** Bug 142372 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 8

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

I've thought about this... and what does "alphabetically" mean, exactly?  What
if my listbox and keyboard are both Chinese?  What if they're Spanish (the
alphabetical order is a bit different from English)?

Issue (C) in comment 0 is now resolved.  Issue (B) is not resolvable, in my
opinion.  Issue (A) is invalid, since the idea is that multiple presses of "b"
would move amongst the options starting with "b" in order.

Marking WONTFIX (for the (B) and (A) issues, since (C) is covered by a separate
FIXED bug).