Closed Bug 1619801 Opened 4 years ago Closed 4 years ago

browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll no longer works

Categories

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Address Bar
Version:
75 Branch
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED INVALID

People

(Reporter: mozilla, Unassigned)

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0

Steps to reproduce:

Using existing Firefox Nightly profile with browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll to true via user.js:
Click on URL bar

Using new Firefox Nightly profile:
Go to about:config
Attempt to verify that the config option was false (which is the default on UNIX but not Mac)
Click on URL bar

Actual results:

Existing profile:
The entire URL bar was selected with a single click

New profile:
The config option no longer exists
The entire URL bar was selected with a single click

Expected results:

When the config option is false, no part of the URL should be selected with a single click; instead the cursor should just be placed in the URL where clicked.

This appears to have been caused by https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D64783

However the behaviour can be unified across platforms by changing the default to true on all platforms instead of completely removing the setting. This setting is especially useful for developers, and removing it makes using the URL bar much more frustrating:

  • To go to a completely new URL, I normally use Ctrl-L or open a new tab or use click + Ctrl-A

  • Single clicking in the URL bar is very useful to change a part of the URL, such as the request endpoint or a ? parameter or subdomain. With this setting no longer available, I have to either:

  • Quadruple click on the URL bar at the desired position (single click selects all, double click selects a 'word', triple click selects all, quadruple click finally places the cursor with no selection)

  • Click, wait a second so it doesn't count as a double click, and then click again to place the cursor

Bugbug thinks this bug should belong to this component, but please revert this change in case of error.

Component: Untriaged → Address Bar

This is the intended behavior. Please see the rationale in bug 333714 comment 27, which specifically addresses your concerns:

(In reply to Marco Bonardo [:mak] from bug 333714 comment #27)

The will to put the cursor in a specific point is something very specific to a subset of Linux users, while it's a real use-case, this concern never came out on other OSes or browsers, and the common answer I found regarding that concern on Linux was "click to select all, then click again". Yes, it's a workaround, but at least the behavior is consistent with everything else.

Proposal:
...

  • Provide a relnote suggesting a triple click to put the url in the primary selection on Linux. Triple click is a commonly defined operation in input fields. The intent to put the url in the primary selection should be known before the click operation, thus one can just execute the appropriate triple click operation for it.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 4 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID

(In reply to Drew Willcoxon :adw from comment #2)

the common answer I found regarding that concern on Linux was "click to select all, then click again". Yes, it's a workaround, but at least the behavior is consistent with everything else.

Except that this is ambiguous with double click. Click, click again--how long? Did you set a position, or select a word? And now what? Click a third time?

I understand why you changed the default (don't agree, but understand). But I'm not sure why you took away clickSelectsAll. If you left it, default on, you would let those of us who work with URL testing/tweaking to have an option to not have to trip over this change again and again.

(In reply to Andrew Valencia from comment #3)

Except that this is ambiguous with double click. Click, click again--how long?

That's untrue, indeed it is that not a problem on any other browser or OS. Double click ratio and speed can be set all modern OS to be comfortable for every user.

I primarily use Windows (i.e. a non-Linux operating system). My use of non-Windows systems has always been peripheral. I set browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll to false YEARS AGO because I don't like having to clickclickclickclick an infinite number of times until no text is selected, and I don't have the patience to click, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait, click to set a cursor position; computers are supposed to be fast, and their interfaces are not supposed to ADD barriers to rapid productivity. If I desire to select the entire URL, I press Alt+D, which is faster than moving my hand from the keyboard to the mouse and dragging its cursor across the screen. I just updated Firefox to version 75 and I can't sufficiently express how furious I am that the setting is now ignored.

Please restore this feature. Not having it is going to drive me insane.

Ahem, moving this discussion back towards civility, I would endorse the sentiment that you're making a mistake. Do you really think emulating some other browser at the cost of your current users is a Good Idea? Study cargo cults as a reason to be suspicious of this approach.

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