Replacing dash with em-dash in title breaks keyring autotype
Categories
(Firefox :: General, defect)
Tracking
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People
(Reporter: erik, Unassigned)
References
(Regression)
Details
(Keywords: regression)
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:83.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/83.0
Steps to reproduce:
Updated to Firefox 83.0
Actual results:
The previous version of Firefox appended "- Mozilla Firefox" to the page title. Version 83 appends "— Mozilla Firefox" (I'm unsure whether this is an en-dash U+2013 or an em-dash U+2014, but I suspect the latter).
Expected results:
This seemingly-innocuous change breaks third-party keyring programs (e.g. KeePass) that use a window's title/name property to identify which user/password is required for a given window.
In my case, this unnecessary change to Firefox will require hand-editing roughly 150 entries. Quite annoying.
This is another (albeit subtle) reason why "prettification" changes should be avoided and resisted unless absolutely necessary.
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Comment 1•4 years ago
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Bugbug thinks this bug should belong to this component, but please revert this change in case of error.
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Updated•4 years ago
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Updated•4 years ago
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Reporter | |
Comment 2•4 years ago
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Thank you Alice0775 for spotting the regression. I missed this when searching for related issues before creating this report.
As for "Bugbug thinks this bug should belong to...", this issue is generally for password managers that rely on consistent identification of windows requiring user/password input, and not Firefox's Password Manager (which may be unaffected).
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Comment 3•4 years ago
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Also seems to affect 78.5.0esr.
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Updated•4 years ago
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Comment 4•4 years ago
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Also seems to affect 78.5.0esr.
This patch definitely didn't go in the ESR so it would be something different.
This is another (albeit subtle) reason why "prettification" changes should be avoided and resisted unless absolutely necessary.
We can't make sure we work with everyone's workflow. This was the right change to make, it makes our titles look better and more functional.
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Reporter | |
Comment 5•4 years ago
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This was the right change to make, it makes our titles look better and more functional.
Perhaps. Personally, I have never noticed the dash (or otherwise) in decades of using Firefox and it's predecessors. I'm completely neutral on the change, except for its cost.
Rather than drumming the "it looks better" theme (which is no more than an opinion, seemingly championed by a single user), perhaps it's worth acknowledging that a one-byte change in the source code has resulted in consternation ("why does my keyring not work anymore?"), and hours of time, for thousands (ten's of thousands? hundred's of thousands?) of Firefox users.
Don't get me wrong - I'm 100% sure that the change was made without knowledge of the effect it would have on users like me (it's not the sort of change that would warrant beta-testing), and I'm grateful that I have access to a great application like Firefox.
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Comment 6•3 years ago
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(In reply to Mike Kaply [:mkaply] from comment #4)
This patch definitely didn't go in the ESR so it would be something different.
Hmm. True for en-US but it apparently made its way into en-GB. Just freshly installed 78.4.1esr en-GB and 78.5.0esr en-GB on another system, and the latter has the en dash instead of the hyphen. What else could cause that?
My 83 en-US installs meanwhile use an em dash.
Looking at title bars on the Windows platform in general, it seems the hyphen is practically the de facto standard separator before a program name, and the dash gives the Firefox title bar format a non-native appearance. Unfortunately, the bug 1279647 reporter framed it solely as a punctuation matter and the call was made on that basis in reference to the relevant Photon punctuation guidelines, when the platform conventions aspect of the guidelines may also have been relevant given the way title bar text extends beyond the browser to the Windows UI and other programs.
Functionality wise, the existing consistency did also facilitate features that might rely on a predictable title bar format, as demonstrated in some password managers. Not clear what new functionality was worth the trade-off - it obviously doesn't offer a reliable method for distinguishing the program name from the page title except on an ad hoc basis.
And yes, should have offered these thoughts when it mattered - unfortunately I don't use my password manager with my Beta/Nightly installs.
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Comment 7•3 years ago
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I'm wrong about the ESR. because of the way this change was made, when we grabbed our latest translations, this did make it into the ESR.
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Comment 8•3 years ago
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I would like to also add that as a user of Autohotkey--and there are many tens of thousands who use it--it has just affected me too. Hundreds of routines I have that examine the window's title now are broken.
I just updated from 74 to 86 and this is why I always HATE updating Firefox. This change is absolutely, totally UNNECESSARY.
Description
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