170803 - Option Keyboard Navigation of URL Bar

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 149998

(SeaMonkey :: Location Bar, enhancement)

Description

[Brett Koonce]

Bug 149998 is my primary source for this.

To quote:
>>>>>>
Typing Option-forwardarrow, Option-backarrow, Option-Delete, and Option-Del
don't work properly in the location bar text.

Option-forwardarrow should move the cursor to just after the next set of
letters/numbers beyond it.  Right now, it properly moves forward unless there's
punctuation right in front of the cursor, in which case it doesn't do anything.

Option-backarrow should move the cursor to just before the closest set of
letters/numbers before it.  Right now, it moves the cursor to the very start of
the location field.

Option-Delete should delete from the cursor back to the start of the closest set
of letters/numbers before it.  Right now, it deletes from the cursor to the
beginning of the line.

Option-Del should delete from the cursor to the end of the next set of
letters/numbers after it.  Right now, it has no effect.

This is hard to explain in words, but easy to reproduce.  Compare Mozilla's
behavior to that of OmniWeb, which handles location bar text the same way as
other Mac OS X applications handle text.
>>>>>>

However, it seems to me that the behaviour Brian wants is not something that's
part of the Mozilla package but implemented improperly on the Mac (i.e. a bug)
but rather a full feature request.

So, I'm filing this report.

Brian also notes this:
>>>>>>
Documentation on the proper behavior of Option when used with arrow keys,
Delete, and Del (aka Forward Delete) can be found in "Inside Mac OS X: Aqua
Human Interface Guidelines", which is installed as part of the Mac OS X
Developer Tools.  It should be on your hard drive as
"/Developer/Documentation/SystemOverview/AquaHIGuidelines/AquaHIGuidelines.pdf".

Page 129: "A recommended shortcut for text applications is Command-Delete to
delete the previous word, and Command–Forward Delete, to delete the next word."
 (This documentation seems to no longer be entirely correct; using the
Option-keypresses in Mac OS X does what this paragraph says the
Command-keypresses do, and the Command-keypresses in Mac OS X do nothing. 
Verify with TextEdit.)

Page 133 explains what the Option modifier should do with arrow keypresses.
>>>>>>

This seems to be a reasonable request.

-Brett

Comment 1

[Greg K.]

Brett, it's not at all clear what makes this bug different from bug 149998. Can
you be more specific?

Neither bug is really very good. A separate bug should probably be filed for
each key command whose result needs to be changed

Comment 2

[Brett Koonce]

Greg: 

In the past, I've seen the bugzilla people suggest a RFE when a bug complaint
came up that's not covered in the current SeaMonkey builds.  If you want me to
suggest 4 seperate RFE's, though, I can.

However, as this is A) an OSX only bug and B) a fairly limited set of cases (key
+ 4 modifiers), I'd suggest just keeping this.

Your call.
-Brett
P.S.  Thanks for being my bugzilla nemisis for so long.

Comment 3

[Greg K.]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 149998 ***