262639 - width of caret can only be changed for single-line fields and not for multi-line fields using preferences

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 261054

(Core Graveyard :: GFX, defect)

Description

[Stephan Poser]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040803 Firefox/0.9.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040803 Firefox/0.9.3

Because of a missing entry in nsXPLookAndFeel.cpp for
eMetric_MultiLineCaretWidth, width of caret in multi-line textboxes can't be
changed using the preferences window.
The width of the caret in single-line textboxes can be changed using the
ui.caretWidthTwips Key in the about:config preferences window.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. open about:config 
2. add a new integer-key ui.caretWidthTwips with value 3
3. open any website with a html-form with a single-line textbox and a
multiline-textbox (eg. bugzilla)
4. place the cursor in the single-line textbox
5. place it in the multi-line textbox

Actual Results:  
4. place the cursor in the single-line textbox => it has 3 pixel width (as
defined in preferences)
5. place it in the multi-line textbox => 1 or 2 pixel width (depending on OS)

Expected Results:  
either width of both carets should be changed or a second key should be
available to change the size of the multi-line caret as well

The reason about the bug is, that the size of the single-line caret is defined
as 1 pixel width, while its defined as 2 pixel width for multi-line fields for
no apparant reason for Win32.
So it's not possible to change them both in an easy way to 1 pixel width.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Attachment: Patch

Comment 2

[rbs]

Comment on attachment 161170 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch

   { "ui.caretWidthTwips", eMetric_SingleLineCaretWidth, PR_FALSE,
nsLookAndFeelTypeInt, 0 },
+  { "ui.caretWidthTwips", eMetric_MultiLineCaretWidth, PR_FALSE,
nsLookAndFeelTypeInt, 0 },

bz, you meant adding a different key to allow separate settings, no?

Might be best to have
"ui.caretSingleLineWidthTwips"
"ui.caretMultiLineWidthTwips"

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

No, I pretty purposefully used the same key, figuring that people just want to
set the caret width.

I can set different keys, but in that case we should rename them too, since the
width is not, in fact, in twips.

Comment 4

[rbs]

OK, I see.

Since "Twips" is wrong and the value is in fact in pixels, why don't you go
ahead an rename that name "ui.caretWidthTwips" to "ui.caretWidth" in parity with
the nearby "ui.dragThresholdX", "ui.dragThresholdY", etc?

It occurs in just one file in the tree. And this is the only bug where I have
seen a use of that pref. I assume that not many people will be affected by the
change.

Comment 5

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Well, the pref is also publicised on
http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html (but a google search shows pretty
much no other hits -- just http://www.mozilla-japan.org/unix/customizing.html

If we fix the mozilla.org page and mail the mozilla-japan folks, I think this is
a reasonable change... any objections?

Comment 6

[Robert O'Callahan (:roc) (email my personal email if necessary)]

Comment on attachment 161170 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch

Looks like there'll be a new patch here...

Comment 7

[Aaron Leventhal]

This is no longer necessary. As discussed in bug 261054 we should have only 1
caret width ever. Can we close this as WONTFIX?

Comment 8

[Aaron Leventhal]

Marking DUP as suggest by rbs. The other bug will take care of this problem by
having the same caret width at all times.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 261054 ***