220590 - Delete (backspace) key should go back

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, enhancement)

Description

[Aaron Namba]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.6a) Gecko/20030926 Firebird/0.7+/jtalkington-nightly
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.6a) Gecko/20030926 Firebird/0.7+/jtalkington-nightly

Delete (Backspace) should go back. This is present in Safari and IE and is really
handy.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Hit Delete.
Actual Results:  
Nothing.

Expected Results:  
Go back.

Comment 1

[Chris Casciano]

For purpose of discussion movement is leaning towards removing this behavior
from Camino. See bug 181198 / bug 192117

Comment 2

[Manfred Schubert]

This behavior is annoying. The delete key should delete (hence its name). It
should not go back a page if the focus is (unexpectedly possibly) out of an edit
field.

Please do not implement this.

Comment 3

[Jonathan Louie]

agreed, it's not a good shortcut at all.  however, it is a shortcut supplied by
safari, so i'm confirming this.  (i'll let someone else decide its fate. :)

Comment 4

[HARUNAGA Hirotoshi]

*** Bug 243577 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 5

[Matt Sayler]

I can understand the rationale behind not wanting delete == page back, in the
general case.  Is is possible to (possibly with magic keybindings?) accomplish
this for people who want it?

Comment 6

[Russ]

1) Delete should function as a follows - If current focus is a caret, then
Delete works as expected to backspace over a character.  If current focus is not
a caret, then Delete functions as the Back Keyboard Shorcut.
2) In this context, there is not contention for Delete to be used as a Keyboard
Shortcut
3) This functionality, as described is implemented in Safari, Internet Explorer
5.2 for Mac, and Opera
4) This is one of very few universal keyboard shorcuts across browsers and
platforms.  It is as standard as you can get.  99% of users will expect this
behavior and try it intuitively.  Why make it default the other way for the 1%
who find this annoying?  I grant them their preference, but defaults should be
those which are intuitive, or which the user would expect based on experience
with similiar applications.

Comment 7

[HARUNAGA Hirotoshi]

*** Bug 263675 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 8

[Robin Monks]

*** Bug 266500 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 9

[Russ]

This should be reclassified as a major or critical bug, not an enhancement. 
Backspace works as Previous Page shorcut on all other Firefox versions, an all
other Mac browsers.  This is core expected browser functionality.

Comment 10

[Asaf Romano (gone)]

1.0mac has been canceled. I will probably take it for 1.1.

Comment 11

[Hiro]

By Camino, the non-English(IME) user had been afflicted about this function for
a long time.
If it does not carry out carefully, it will be afflicted like bug259454.
Please do not forget existence of IME.

Comment 12

[Tom Hessman]

I understand that this "shortcut" exists in most Windows browsers (including
Firefox), and in many Mac browsers too.  But I have ALWAYS hated this
functionality, ever since I discovered it.  Why should the backspace key send
the browser back one page?  That key is for text editing, and nothing else. 
This causes many issues where one accidentally presses it, or accidentally
presses it while the focus is not in a form field and loses data.  That used to
happen to me in IE all the time.

It especially doesn't make sense on the Mac, where there is no key called
"Backspace".  Why should a key marked "Delete" go back one page?  That is what
cmd-[left arrow] is for!  The alt-arrow (cmd-arrow on Mac) keyboard shortcuts
work in every modern browser I've used (except browsers like lynx, of course),
so there is your universal shortcut across all browsers.  I just don't
understand why someone decided it was intuitive for the backspace key to do
that, other than the fact that the word "back" is on it.  If that is the case,
then why should the Mac's "Delete" key do it?

I suggest that this "bug" NOT be fixed.  If it does get fixed, it should be
configurable (on/off) on ALL platforms.

Comment 13

[Aaron Namba]

(In reply to comment #12)
> But I have ALWAYS hated this functionality, ever since I discovered it.
Actually, I am not entirely supportive of it either. I suppose the title could
have read "Should backspace key go back?" or something to that effect. Mainly I
reported this for the sake of consistency across platforms, although there are
subtle differences from one platform to the next (the behavior of the middle
button on Linux for example).

> That key is for text editing, and nothing else.
One could argue that Cmd-Left and Cmd-Right should go to the beginning and the
end of the line, and nothing else.

> This causes many issues where one accidentally presses it, or accidentally
> presses it while the focus is not in a form field and loses data.  That used to
> happen to me in IE all the time.
Yes, this happens a lot in IE. However, you'll notice that Firefox generally
retains form data if accidentally go back, then go forward again. Also if you
refresh, your form data is generally retained. This is especially handy when you
encounter "mid-air collisions" in bugzilla.

> The alt-arrow (cmd-arrow on Mac) keyboard shortcuts
> work in every modern browser I've used (except browsers like lynx, of course),
> so there is your universal shortcut across all browsers.
Also note that backspace works in many browsers.

> If it does get fixed, it should be configurable (on/off) on ALL platforms.
Agreed.

Comment 14

[Sam Martin]

This really should be consistent. It shouldn't go back on Linux and Windows, and do nothing on Mac. If 
it's not fixed, it should be dropped on every platform, not just Mac.

Comment 15

[Hex]

> If it does get fixed, it should be configurable (on/off) on ALL platforms.

> If it's not fixed, it should be dropped on every platform, not just Mac.

Agree heartily with both of these. This annoying "functionality" should be
disabled, or the user allowed to disable it, as soon as possible.

Comment 16

[Steve Lombardi]

You know, I don't want to debate the semantics and functionality of what a
Delete key should do.  The facts are:  

1. my Mac keyboard does not have a "browser back" key

2. all my other browsers work around this by having "delete" be the way to go
pack a page

It's generally accepted behavior, please adopt it.  It's very frustrating to
have FF be the only browser to not support this!  Until they redesign keyboards,
the existing keys sometimes have to serve additional and maybe even odd
purposes.  This is one of those cases.  PLEASE fix this bug and wire the Delete
key.  At least make it a user pref, in about or user.js.

Comment 17

[Hex]

(In reply to comment #16)
> 1. my Mac keyboard does not have a "browser back" key

My Windows and Linux keyboards do not have a "browser forward" key. The reason
this is not an issue is because we have 

> 2. all my other browsers work around this by having "delete" be the way to go
pack a page

You have a way to go back a page, it's called Alt (or Command, I think, for
Apple people)-Left. It works remarkably well in combination with Alt-Right. I
just tried this navigation out in Internet Explorer, and it worked just as I
expected it to. I also just installed Opera 8 and tried it there, with the same
result. So clearly the consistency you are wishing for is already extant.

> Until they redesign keyboards, the existing keys sometimes have to serve
additional and maybe even odd purposes.  This is one of those cases. 

Until they redesign keyboards, it is extremely easy to mis-strike
Backspace/Delete and cause the browser to jump back a page when you are not
expecting, let alone wishing, it to. On the other hand, it is near-impossible to
do this with Alt-Back.

Comment 18

[Hex]

(In reply to comment #17)
> because we have 

Sigh. Sorry. "...because we have the Alt-[Cursor] navigation method."

Comment 19

[Mark Mentovai]

Attachment: Enable backspace (delete) for history-back (and shifted equivalent for forward)

I used to think that backspace/delete was an evil shortcut, but I apparently
got accustomed enough to it after spending more time using non-Macs that I
found myself missing it today.

The arguments for doing this are platform parity and "everyone else does it on
the Mac."  Supply your own arguments against.

Comment 20

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

If Safari and IE do it, there isn't a compelling reason against that doesn't
apply to all platforms already using this.

Comment 21

[Mark Mentovai]

Comment on attachment 199112 [details] [diff] [review]
Enable backspace (delete) for history-back (and shifted equivalent for forward)

In that case, this is a quick and easy change that only involves removing
conditionals.

Comment 22

[Mark Mentovai]

Checked in on trunk.  This is a fast and easy fix that brings the Mac Firefox
keymappings in line with Firefox on other platforms, and in line with other Mac
browsers.

Comment 23

[Hex]

(In reply to comment #19)
> Supply your own arguments against.

Comment #17 was arguments against. As was comment #12. And many, many comments
in bug 262905.

So is this going to be a configurable preference, and if not, why not?

Comment 24

[Mark Mentovai]

Fixed on the branch.