303871 - A better fix for bug 124750 (textbox.focus() stealing focus from tabs) is needed

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 307933

(SeaMonkey :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

This is a follow-up from bug 124750.

See bug 124750, comment 177:
"This aint what we really want, but it's better than what we've got, so I'm
proposing we take this change until we get the time to figure out the real fix
for this."

So the fix for bug 124750 was sort of a workaround, I guess. I'm proposing this
bug to be the placeholder for the better fix.

Comment 1

[anonmozbugreport]

I am using mozilla 1.7.12 which I believe on Sep. 26 was still the latest build.
 I am using this on 2.4.30 Linux with GTK1.

I am new to bugzilla, but the basic functionality of this bug seems to be
described in many places under different names and descriptions in this bug
database, including 124750 which had been closed.  Generally, I would describe
the problem by saying that a tab is opened in the background, but while you are
viewing the foreground tab, the background tab finishes loading and steals focus
away from the foreground tab.  The result is that all of the keyboard input you
thought was going to the foreground tab goes to the background tab instead. 
Sometimes, passwords and other sensitive data may be sent there.  This may pose
a problem for an unsophisticated user.

The most frequent case where this loss of focus occurs is when the user is
reading a web page and notices that the page-down key suddenly stops working
after a background tab finishes loading.  A user loading multiple tabs in the
background will thus be interrupted many times in the course of reading that
page by the inability to continue scrolling down the page to keep reading it. 
Each time, the user will find that the pagedown key doesn't work anymore and
will have to use the mouse to manually correct focus. Sometimes it is impossible
to even control-tab out of that tab to go to the next one (an old workaround
since galeon times), the user has to leave the keyboard and use the mouse to
click on the tab to give it focus, which sometimes doesn't work either, and it
becomes necessary then to drag to select text on the page to give it focus, and
when *that* doesn't work, the user has no option but to click on the second tab,
read that, and then close it, so that the original tab can have keyboard focus
again.

Comment 2

[Jesse Ruderman]

Is this the same as bug 307933?

Comment 3

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

They could be related, I guess. I merely opened this bug, because bug 124750 got
too big and confusing.

Comment 4

[Andrew White]

This problem occurs in Camino 1.0 also.  When a tab loads in the background focus is "stolen" from a currently-in-use text box in the current tab.

Comment 6

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

I don't think it is a duplicate of bug 307933, I filed this as a follow-up for bug 124750, because that bug was basically fixed, but left open because jst wanted a better fix for that bug.
But that caused all kinds of confusion of people commenting in the bug, that's why I filed this bug.

But anyway, I don't think anyone will work on this bug. 

Comment 7

[Jesse Ruderman]

A "better fix" in what way?

Comment 8

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

I don't know, that's what jst was talking about in bug 124750.