230904 - Empty list box (selection box) has unreliable focus indication

Status: NEW

(Toolkit :: UI Widgets, defect)

Description

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

When a listbox gets the focus, it only displays this fact visually if one or 
items in the box are selected (or, *has been* selected).  Copying these comments 
from bug 205666:

 - If the box is empty, there is never an indicator of focus.
 - If no items in the box are, nor have been, selected (either by the program,
or by the user), there is no indication of focus.  However, typing a down arrow 
selects the first item; and clicking an item, of course, selects it.
 - If one or more items are selected, they are shown with a dark background, and 
if the focus is removed, the background is still shown, but lighter.  Returning 
focus to the box redraws the background dark again.  So: the background color is 
a focus indicator.
 - User Ctrl-click on the (single) selected item: the entry is now shown with a 
dotted outline (a "nonselection"); if the focus is removed, the outline is 
erased, but is re-drawn if focus is restored to the box.

Recommended: a shadowy outline (similar to that on dropdown lists) when the 
box has focus; plus, perhaps, automatically adding a "nonselection" when the 
first item is entered, if a selection is not made.


Bug 202036 implies that the rendering of the highlight is different in the 
Classic theme under MacOS, but otherwise is identical in Classic and Modern, on 
Windows, Linux and Mac(Modern).

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Per bug 185585, this is an accessibility issue.

Comment 2

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Thanks to a fix for bug 280153, the "current" indicator (called "nonselection" 
in the original report) is now shown so long as there is at least one item in 
the list.  However, the empty list still has no indication of having the focus; 
so, I'm retargeting this bug on that particular problem.

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Thanks to a fix for bug 280153, the "current" indicator (called "nonselection" 
> in the original report) is now shown

OK, I've learned that this change was for Toolkit only.  Since this is my bug, 
and I'm not using Seamonkey except for occasional testing, I'm moving it to 
Toolkit.