272041 - can't copy whitespace anymore

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect)

Description

[R.K.Aa.]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a6) Gecko/20041126

I can't copy single white spaces in a webpage or form anymore. Any page.
In the context menu, "copy" is no longer an option, and ctrl+c doesn't work.

This used to work not long ago.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Christine, this seems to work for me in a current Linux build (both Nov 26 and
Dec 5).  I can copy the spaces in the summary of this bug (from the input field)
and paste them...

If this is an issue on Windows, can you possibly narrow down when it appeared?

Comment 2

[R.K.Aa.]

This bug was reported on Windows XP. A build from Nov 10th also has the bug. I'm
sure this has worked, but testing 1.7.3, the bug is there too. 

(Regrettably, I was forced to stop using Linux when Mozilla started using the
Gtk2 filepicker. It is unusable since it lacks an input field to
paste/copy/write in.)

Comment 3

[Ere Maijala (slow)]

Interesting. I can copy a space from a comment (maybe because it's a
preformatted block) just fine, but when I try to copy a space from for example
the text "This bug is awaiting triage", the following text is copied to the
clipboard:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=272041
Bug 272041 - can't copy whitespace anymore

Not quite what I expected.. 

Comment 4

[R.K.Aa.]

that text would be what was previously on your clipboard.
Problem is that you cant copu whitespace from webpages.
Select the space, then right-click: There is no "copy" menuitem, even.

I too can copy spaces from the comment form here in bugzilla - always could -
sorry about that. I did see a form where i couldnt copy from, but cant find it
again.

Comment 5

[Ere Maijala (slow)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> that text would be what was previously on your clipboard.

No, it wasn't. I even tested multiple times by selecting some text, copying,
pasting (works) and then selecting the space again, copying and pasting (the
mentioned result).

Comment 6

[R.K.Aa.]

>and then selecting the space again, copying and pasting (the
>mentioned result).

Dang.. same thing happens to me. I was sure there were no copy menuitem, but it
has re-surfaced in the main Edit menu. And a ctrl+C causes the same weirdness.

Comment 7

[R.K.Aa.]

and if i copy a whitespace from a regular bug-query for todays bugs, it is the
content in urlbar that copies

Comment 8

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Ah, ok.  I can sorta (very sorta) reproduce this if I copy from non-preformatted
text.  "Copy" is enabled, but nothing gets copied (that is, when I paste I get
the empty string).  I never get the garbage described in comments 3-7.

The symptoms I see go back to at least Jan 1, 2003, though, so maybe I'm seeing
something slightly different?

Given that the behavior is so different, this is really sounding like a Win32
problem (certainly the part about copying bogus data sounds that way).

Comment 9

[Andrew Schultz]

attempting to find a better component

Comment 10

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Martijn, can you reproduce this?  If so, any idea when this regressed on Windows?

Comment 11

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

No, I can't reproduce, this is worksforme.

Comment 12

[R.K.Aa.]

The behaviour here has changed and it now works in:
-forms on pages
-from main edit menu
-with ctrl+c

but the wrong context menu still appears when only a whitespace in a page is selected:

Just load this bugreport - select a line or two - right-click to bring up context menu and copy it. Works fine.

Then select only a whitespace somewhere in the content area, and right-click to bring up the context menu. Result: The wrong context menu appears: The one you'd get by right-clicking somewhere on the page without any selection existing at all.

Comment 13

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

> but the wrong context menu still appears 

That's not a core widget issue -- the context menu impls are forked.  That needs three separate bugs (Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird)....

Comment 14

[[e-mail]]

So, it looks as if when blake implemented the Copy menuitem he linked its display to that of the "Search Web For..." menuitem which trims whitespace.

Comment 15

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Indeed.  The question is whether that makes sense.

Comment 16

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

still an issue as described?  not 100% clear on bz's testcase comment 8.  Everything I tried WFM trunk builds

Comment 17

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Wayne, see comment 12.

Comment 18

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #17)
> Wayne, see comment 12.

interesting - fails in SM and thunderbird trunk - but FF trunk WFM.

Comment 19

[Andrew Schultz]

yes, the context menu items are forked, see comment 13

Comment 20

[Andrew Schultz]

Attachment: port what firefox does

Copying and/or viewing partial source of whitespace seems reasonable to me.

Comment 21

[[e-mail]]

Comment on attachment 246406 [details] [diff] [review]
port what firefox does

...or indeed the source of any non-textual selection, such as a replaced element.

Comment 22

[Andrew Schultz]

FIXED

Comment 23

[Robert Kaiser]

Comment on attachment 246406 [details] [diff] [review]
port what firefox does

a=me for SeaMonkey 1.1