626594 - shortcut for switching tab groups is badly accessible on many non-US keyboard layouts

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, defect, P4)

Description

[Kuno Meyer]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b9) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b9
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b9) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b9

On most non-US keyboard layouts, CTRL+` is almost inaccessible, since the location of [`] is completely different from the US layout. (See [1], look for example at "German" or "Spanish" or "French", just to mention some large user groups.) On some layouts, you even need to press SHIFT to reach [`]. On some layouts and operating systems, [`] has a delayed behavior ([`] and [a] results in [à])

Therefore, I think (and if it is feasible), the shortcut for switching tab groups should be defined by physical location on the keyboard, not by character.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Peter Mørch]

I can confirm this bug (but don't know how to do this in bugzilla though).

I have a danish keyboard on Linux on FF 4.0. To achieve a ` char I have to hit these keys: shift + "`'|"key + space. By the "`'|"key, I mean the key that has all three of `, ' and | painted on it. If I don't hit the last space, it will be waiting to see if I hit a vowel next so it knows whether to output e.g. an à or the `. Typing that same sequence while holding down CTRL does not change tab groups.

Changing the layout to US and it does work for me.

Comment 2

[Eske Rahn]

That's odd Peter. It works on my Danish keyboard??
Ctrl+shift and the key left of backspace.
But please note the group-shift is NOT cyclic (bug?). So when the last group is reached you can not switch further

Comment 3

[Eske Rahn]

Sorry, silly me.

Ctrl+shift [`] gives the shift in ONE direction, at that works for both US and DK keyboard

Ctrl [`] gives the other direction, and does NOT work with Danish keyboard.

...And the strange thing is that the NON-cyclic behaviour seems to have vanishes after I tried with the US-layout. Strange...

Comment 4

[Kevin Hanes]

Seems like two bugs here. I think fixing the non-cyclic behavior will be fairly easy, not sure about the key combo.

Comment 5

[Tim Taubert [:ttaubert] (inactive)]

bugspam

Comment 6

[Tim Taubert [:ttaubert] (inactive)]

bugspam

Comment 7

[Tim Taubert [:ttaubert] (inactive)]

bugspam

(Fx7 was branched, removing open bugs from Fx7 meta bug, we won't create new meta bugs for upcoming Fx versions)

Comment 8

[Hernán Rodriguez Colmeiro (:peregrino)]

Any news on this? Would like to get this moving, as it's mainly deciding which keys to use.

Comment 9

[Hernán Rodriguez Colmeiro (:peregrino)]

(In reply to Hernán Rodriguez Colmeiro (:peregrino) from comment #8)
> Any news on this? Would like to get this moving, as it's mainly deciding
> which keys to use.

That comment goes to bug 591935.

---

What I meant to ask here was if the part of non-cycling behavior is still happening. I cannot reproduce it with Nightly 15.0a1 (2012-05-22).

Comment 11

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

The Tab Groups feature has been removed.