241774 - Change deletion of autocomplete entries from shift+del to just del button

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Address Bar, enhancement)

Description

[José Jeria]

Now that bug 204706 has been fixed you dont run into the problem described in
bug 171605 comment 24 where just pressing delete would delete what you typed in
+ the autocomplete entry.

Just pressing the delete button to delete an autocomplete entry is something
that even my 67 (from today, yiha) old father figured out in IE. It would make
it easier for IE users that switch to just have the delete button as IE has it.

Steps to reproduce
1. Let a IE user try to delete an autocomplete entry
2. See how he confused he gets when he presses delete and nothing happends
3. Explain that shift + delete was decided for the reason that bug 204706 was
not fixed yet

Actual results:
IE user looks completely confused when I start explaining what bugzilla bug
number 204706 is.

Expected results:
Too see IE user switching to Firefox happy and not confused when he presses
delete for an autocomplete entry.

Comment 1

[alanjstr]

If you hit delete on the dropdown item, it should delete it.  If it has filled
field, then it should delete a character.  People are used to delete.  Adding a
modifier just confuses things.

Comment 2

[Steve Wendt]

Current behavior probably violates CUA, also (uses "Cut" keystrokes).

Comment 3

[Scott Brawner]

Just curious as to whether this applies only to the adderss bar, or to stored
form data as well.

Comment 4

[alanjstr]

stored form data, too.

Comment 5

[Dean Tessman]

From bug 171605:

 ------- Additional Comment #24 From Ben Goodger  2004-03-17 20:33 PDT  [reply]
-------

It's because Delete is an acceptable way of forward-deleting the selection. 

try this:

Start typing:

www.fo|

this autocompletes:

  www.foo.com/
  www.foo.com/bar/
  www.foo.com/bar/foo/

you press down arrow twice, leaving yourself with:

      +- caret
      |
      v##selected##
www.fo|o.com/bar/
  www.foo.com/
##www.foo.com/bar/###############
  www.foo.com/bar/foo/

You hit delete to clear the selected text. Instead, www.foo.com/bar/ disappears.
Is that what you want to happen? 

Comment 6

[Jesse Ruderman]

That makes sense.  Firefox fills in the textbox when you select an autocomplete
entry; Internet Explorer does not.  I'm removing my vote.

Comment 7

[José Jeria]

(In reply to comment #5)

Please correct me if I am wrong, but what is described in bug 171605, comment 24
happend before bug 204706 was fixed. Because the cursor stayed in the position
you were in and selected the rest of the text that was autofilled. This does not
happend anymore since bug 204706 has been fixed, when selecting something, the
cursor goes to the end of the entry, not making it possible for the scenario in
bug 171605, comment 24.

I compared IE with Firefox, and they act the same, when you start typing,
auto-complete entrie appears in the menu, when selecting one, the field is
filled and the cursor goes to the end.

Comment 8

[Jesse Ruderman]

Oops.  Ignore my comment 6 :)

Comment 9

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

*** Bug 269219 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

*** Bug 280507 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 11

[tomlin coggeshall]

There is additional discussion of pretty much the same thing at:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=295792

I second the motion that it would be much easier to use if the DEL key would
delete unwanted autocomplete entries.  Also, need to increase ability to trap
new entries on the same form, even if some autocomplete entries exist for that form.

Comment 12

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

This has some merit, but its too late to make UE changes in this cycle,
especially ones that break documented shortcuts.

Comment 13

[Jesse Ruderman]

*** Bug 324799 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 14

[Jesse Ruderman]

Bug 310612, bug 276175, and bug 278285 are arguably also dups of this bug.

Comment 15

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Yeah, let's get this done before a1, we can always revert if we hit other problems.

Comment 16

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Attachment: patch

Comment 17

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Trunk:
mozilla/toolkit/content/widgets/autocomplete.xml;                1.52;
mozilla/toolkit/components/satchel/src/nsFormFillController.cpp; 1.59;

1.8 branch:
mozilla/toolkit/content/widgets/autocomplete.xml;                1.44.2.2;
mozilla/toolkit/components/satchel/src/nsFormFillController.cpp; 1.51.4.2;

Comment 18

[José Jeria]

Verified fixed with: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20060201 Firefox/1.6a1

Thanks for fixing this.

Comment 19

[voidlogic7]

This bug appears to be back... 52.0.1 (64-bit) Linux

Comment 20

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

A bug that implemented a new behavior can't be back, at a maximum you could argue the behavior broke, and then you should rather file a regression bug.