322525 - address autocompletion decides too fast

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Akos Maroy]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20060104 Firefox/1.0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20060104 Firefox/1.0.7

I just upgraded to Thunderbird 1.5rc2, and I've found that address autocompletion just decides too fast for me to actually chose an address from the possible list of entries based on what I've typed in. By too fast I mean that there's an almost invisble sub-second blimp of the drop-down menu that would enable me to select an address, and then it's gone - the first choice is selected.

it's so fast at first I didn't even see it, and thought that the autocompletion feature has changed so as to select always the first choice.

maybe there's a configuration item to determine the time to wait here, but I didn't find it :(

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. open a composition window
2. type in a few letters into the To: field
3. try to select an address - but can't, the first is selected for you

Actual Results:  
there's no way to select an address from the list that is offered by auto-completion

Expected Results:  
a drop-down list should appear for long enough to select an address from it

I'm using Gentoo Linux, and Thunderbird 1.5rc2

Comment 1

[Matthieu Dazy]

I also have this problem with the official 1.5 release on Windows XP.

Example #1 : address card with two addresses.
- create a new address card for "Foo" with addresses [e-mail] and [e-mail]
- open a new mail
- enter "foo" without letting the completion list show up -> the address is automatically completed to [e-mail] and the other possible completion isn't shown
- if you try again and let the completion list show up, the behaviour is OK

Example #2 : different cards with partly identical names
- create a new address card for "Bob Robert" with address [e-mail]
- create a new address card for "Robert Bob" with address [e-mail]
- open a new mail
- enter "robert" without letting the completion list show up -> the address is automatically completed to [e-mail] and the other possible completion isn't shown
- if you try again and let the completion list show up, the behaviour is OK

I have not made any extensive tests to confirm this, but it seems that the problem occurs whenever I have typed enough characters to leave only two possible completions.

Comment 2

[Stuart Goldman]

Hi, I hope I can add to this -- not really sure how it works, but I wanted to pass along some information about this bug, since I went looking for it.

I discovered that you CAN get the multiple addresses to show up, IF you type slowly. My example is that I have two addresses for my Dad, both of which are in the address book with the nickname of "Dad." If I open a new message and QUICKLY type "Dad," I do not get a choice of address. But if I type, "D" <1/2-second pause> "a" <pause again> "d," I DO get the two choices.

I'm using Thunderbird version 1.5 (20051201) on Windows 2000.

Comment 3

[Stefan Moebius]

I can confirm the behavior in comment #3. There's definitely a behavioral difference depending on the typing speed.

Using version 1.5 (20051201) on WinXP.

Comment 4

[Jamie Kitson]

Yep, me too, if you type more quickly than the drop down appears till there are exactly two possible addresses one is auto matically chosen for you.

Debian unstable, Thunderbird 1.5 (20060228)

Jamie Kitson

Comment 5

[Jamie Kitson]

Cannot reproduce on WinXP Thunderbird 1.5.0.2 (20060308)

Jamie

Comment 6

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Cannot reproduce on WinXP Thunderbird 1.5.0.2 (20060308)

Akos Maroy, can you confirm that on your Linux installation?


(In reply to comment #4)
> if you type more quickly than the drop down appears till there are
> exactly two possible addresses one is auto matically chosen for you.

This sounds like bug 318992, apparently fixed by the patch at bug 314047; however, I don't see any indication of that patch going into the 1.8.0 branch.  Bug 326280 was fixed for 1.5.0.2, and that is related at root to those other bugs.

But there isn't anything at any of those bugs regarding typing speed.

Comment 7

[Gary Kwong [:gkw] [:nth10sd] (NOT official MoCo now)]

Reporter, does the issue still occur in the latest supported 2.0.0.x / Shredder trunk nightlies?

(1.5.0.x is now end-of-life and the latest supported 2.0.0.x is 2.0.0.16)

Comment 8

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

I've not seen a problem with this on trunk. No one has reported against 2.x therefore closing as WFM.