1685995 - Allow AltGr+Left/RightArrow to navigate history on Windows/Linux

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, enhancement, P3)

Description

[:Gijs (he/him)]

See discussion in bug 1041377 comment #46 and others.

This seems useful given the key combination does nothing else right now anyway, and is a lot easier to hit than using the left alt key. Neil, how feasible is this and/or is there any particular reason not to do it?

Comment 1

[Neil Deakin]

Is the idea to allow both Alt+Left and AltGr+Left to go back in history? I don't know of any issue with doing that.

Note that on Windows, Ctrl+Alt+Left would also trigger this shortcut.

Comment 2

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to Neil Deakin from comment #1)

Is the idea to allow both Alt+Left and AltGr+Left to go back in history?

Yep.

Comment 4

[Tom S]

I looked into this a bit. I get the impression that the current code doesn't support AltGraph as a modifier.

Comment 5

[Tom S]

Attachment: WIP: Bug 1685995 - Support AltGr keys

Comment 6

[Tom S]

Hi! Would you mind looking at this? It's not really that important, but I would like to hear your thoughts.

Comment 7

[Masayuki Nakano [:masayuki] (he/him)(JST, +0900)]

Yeah, sounds reasonable especially if the other browsers do so. But like comment 1, Control + Alt + Arrow(Left|Right) would cause history navigation on Windows seems odd to me, but I have no idea to prevent it without over size patches.

Comment 8

[Tom S]

Thanks for answering! I did a quick google search for Ctrl + Alt + Arrow. Seems like there is Intel or Windows software that uses those hotkeys: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005491/graphics.html. I wonder if that is going to cause issues.

Comment 9

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to Masayuki Nakano [:masayuki] (he/him)(JST, +0900)(Away: 4/29-5/5) from comment #7)

Yeah, sounds reasonable especially if the other browsers do so. But like comment 1, Control + Alt + Arrow(Left|Right) would cause history navigation on Windows seems odd to me, but I have no idea to prevent it without over size patches.

Could the widget code the patch affects here not treat "altgraph" as applying as a shortcut modifier if ctrl is also pressed? Or is there some reason that would not work?

Comment 10

[Masayuki Nakano [:masayuki] (he/him)(JST, +0900)]

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #9)

(In reply to Masayuki Nakano [:masayuki] (he/him)(JST, +0900)(Away: 4/29-5/5) from comment #7)

Yeah, sounds reasonable especially if the other browsers do so. But like comment 1, Control + Alt + Arrow(Left|Right) would cause history navigation on Windows seems odd to me, but I have no idea to prevent it without over size patches.

Could the widget code the patch affects here not treat "altgraph" as applying as a shortcut modifier if ctrl is also pressed? Or is there some reason that would not work?

When active keyboard layout has AltGr key, but user uses Ctrl + Alt key for emulating the AltGraph key (e.g., when there is no AltRight key), only AltGraph is set and Ctrl and Alt states are removed.
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/4275e4bd2b2aba34b2c69b314c4b50bdf83520af/widget/windows/KeyboardLayout.cpp#1137-1150

So, from XP code level, we cannot distinguish whether the AltGraph state is caused by AltRight key press or Ctrl + Alt key's emulation.