273614 - [Mac] Tab key focus problems with HTML form elements (select, radio buttons, check box)

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 187508

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, defect)

Description

[CAS]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

When filling out an HTML form, the tab key does not move the input focus to
certain form elements as is standard practice.  Selection drop-downs, radio
buttons, and check boxes are all skipped when "tabbing" through form fields.

The tab-key driven focus change is a fundamental keyboard operation (nay, not
just a "shortcut") and Firefox 1.0 shouldn't have shipped with this bug.

Even the Safari browser supports "tabbing" and space-bar driven state changes
over selection drop-downs, radio buttons, checkboxes, etc. as long as the
following option is enabled: System Preferences | Keyboard & Mouse | Keyboard
Shortcuts | Turn on full keyboard access.

Firefox [Mac] should support tab-key driven focus changes (and space-bar state
changes) for all form elements.  Optionally, this functionality could be enabled
when a Firefox option is enabled, or when the System Preference "Turn on full
keyboard access" is enabled.

This is NOT a duplicate of the check-box problem in the Basic Auth dialog
(Summary: tab focus problems in http basic auth dialog; #228318) as the lack of
support for tab-key driven focus changes in HTML forms or browser-wide is the
greater issue, in my opinion.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open any HTML form with selection drop-downs, radio buttons, or checkboxes.
Example: http://adds.aviationweather.gov/metars/

2. Try tabbing from any text entry field to a selection drop-down, radio button,
or checkbox. Observe that the focus skips selection drop-downs, radio buttons,
checkboxes, and possibly other types of fields.

3. Try the above on a PC, observe expected behaviour.

4. Try the above with Apple Safari browser, after enabling "System Preferences |
Keyboard & Mouse | Keyboard Shortcuts | Turn on full keyboard access," observe
expected behaviour.

Actual Results:  
1. Certain form fields, mentioned above, are skipped when "tabbing" through the
form.

Expected Results:  
1. No fields are skipped when tabbing.
2. Space-bar toggles state changes, or selects items in the case of a "drop-down"

Mac only.

This is a major feature problem.  Not being able to tab to all fields is a
critical problem for some operations where mouseless operation is required.

People will be switching away from Firefox if this bug isn't fixed.

Comment 1

[Asaf Romano (gone)]

...haha...

dupe of bug 187508. see a workaround on bug 239175 comment 1.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 187508 ***

Comment 2

[CAS]

(In reply to comment #1)
> ...haha...
> 
> dupe of bug 187508. see a workaround on bug 239175 comment 1.
> 
> *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 187508 ***


What exactly does "...haha..." mean?  SFA.