[gentoo-user] Question for users of the Firefox browser

[gentoo-user] Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Andrew Lowe]

Hi all,
	I've been using Firefox for ages and something struck me recently as a
bit odd. In the Windows version, if I click up into the address or
search boxes, the existing contents are highlighted and if I begin
typing, the existing text is deleted and what I'm typing becomes the
contents. On the Linux version, under KDE, it doesn't. I have to click
into the appropriate edit box, highlight the contents and start typing
or hit either home/end and then start deleting before typing my new URL.
If, for example, the existing text happens to be a google search string,
this can be quite a bit of text to delete.

	So my question, I suppose, is multipart:

1) Is this by design? Is this the normal behaviour?

2) Have I set a USE flag wrong somewhere that causes this behaviour?

3) How do people get around the problem I mentioned above regarding long
URL's, such as a Google search results?

	Any thoughts, greatly appreciated,

		Andrew

RE: [gentoo-user] Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Franz Fellner]

Andrew Lowe wrote:
> Hi all,
> 	I've been using Firefox for ages and something struck me recently as a
> bit odd. In the Windows version, if I click up into the address or
> search boxes, the existing contents are highlighted and if I begin
> typing, the existing text is deleted and what I'm typing becomes the
> contents. On the Linux version, under KDE, it doesn't. I have to click
> into the appropriate edit box, highlight the contents and start typing
> or hit either home/end and then start deleting before typing my new URL.
> If, for example, the existing text happens to be a google search string,
> this can be quite a bit of text to delete.
> 
> 	So my question, I suppose, is multipart:
> 
> 1) Is this by design? Is this the normal behaviour?
> 
> 2) Have I set a USE flag wrong somewhere that causes this behaviour?
> 
> 3) How do people get around the problem I mentioned above regarding long
> URL's, such as a Google search results?
> 
> 	Any thoughts, greatly appreciated,
> 
> 		Andrew
> 

You can try to double/triple click the text.
Or use <Ctrl+L> or <F6>.
I am using vimperator with gui=None, so I don't see the url/search bar.
I simply hit "o" or "t" and start typing ;)

Concerning the other points: I can't tell you if it's intentional. I never cared ;)
You can argue that canging the URL gets mor difficult with the way it works on WIN
An I don't think this depends on USE-Flags.

Re: [gentoo-user] Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Walter Dnes]

  I use the Seamonkey variant on ICEWM, so I don't think it's specific
to your setup.

On Sun, May 17, 2015 at 01:52:21PM +0800, Andrew Lowe wrote

> 	So my question, I suppose, is multipart:
> 
> 1) Is this by design? Is this the normal behaviour?

  I get the same behaviour.

> 2) Have I set a USE flag wrong somewhere that causes this behaviour?

  I don't think so.

> 3) How do people get around the problem I mentioned above regarding long
> URL's, such as a Google search results?

  Tapping {F6} once or twice will highlight the entire URL.  Typing even
one character will then delete the old URL.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Paul Klos]

Op zondag 17 mei 2015 13:52:21 schreef Andrew Lowe:
> Hi all,
> 	I've been using Firefox for ages and something struck me recently as a
> bit odd. In the Windows version, if I click up into the address or
> search boxes, the existing contents are highlighted and if I begin
> typing, the existing text is deleted and what I'm typing becomes the
> contents. On the Linux version, under KDE, it doesn't. I have to click
> into the appropriate edit box, highlight the contents and start typing
> or hit either home/end and then start deleting before typing my new URL.
> If, for example, the existing text happens to be a google search string,
> this can be quite a bit of text to delete.
> 
> 	So my question, I suppose, is multipart:
> 
> 1) Is this by design? Is this the normal behaviour?
> 
> 2) Have I set a USE flag wrong somewhere that causes this behaviour?
> 
> 3) How do people get around the problem I mentioned above regarding long
> URL's, such as a Google search results?
> 
> 	Any thoughts, greatly appreciated,
> 
> 		Andrew
> 
Hi Andrew,

You might be interested in these settings (from about:config):

browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll
browser.urlbar.doubleClickSelectsAll

You can configure what happens when you click in the address bar.

I have no idea why the defaults on win/linux are different, though,

Cheers,

Paul

Re: [gentoo-user] Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

Am 17.05.2015 um 11:39 schrieb Paul Klos:
> Op zondag 17 mei 2015 13:52:21 schreef Andrew Lowe:
>> Hi all,
>> 	I've been using Firefox for ages and something struck me recently as a
>> bit odd. In the Windows version, if I click up into the address or
>> search boxes, the existing contents are highlighted and if I begin
>> typing, the existing text is deleted and what I'm typing becomes the
>> contents. On the Linux version, under KDE, it doesn't. I have to click
>> into the appropriate edit box, highlight the contents and start typing
>> or hit either home/end and then start deleting before typing my new URL.
>> If, for example, the existing text happens to be a google search string,
>> this can be quite a bit of text to delete.
>>
>> 	So my question, I suppose, is multipart:
>>
>> 1) Is this by design? Is this the normal behaviour?
>>
>> 2) Have I set a USE flag wrong somewhere that causes this behaviour?
>>
>> 3) How do people get around the problem I mentioned above regarding long
>> URL's, such as a Google search results?
>>
>> 	Any thoughts, greatly appreciated,
>>
>> 		Andrew
>>
> Hi Andrew,
>
> You might be interested in these settings (from about:config):
>
> browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll
> browser.urlbar.doubleClickSelectsAll
>
> You can configure what happens when you click in the address bar.
>
> I have no idea why the defaults on win/linux are different, though,
>
> Cheers,
>
> Paul
>
>
>
maybe because in linux selecting = copying. So if you select with a
simple click you might overwrite the contents of the clipboard = highly
annoying.

Re: [gentoo-user] Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Bruce Hill]

On Sun, May 17, 2015 at 11:39:29AM +0200, Paul Klos wrote:
> Op zondag 17 mei 2015 13:52:21 schreef Andrew Lowe:
> > Hi all,
> > 	I've been using Firefox for ages and something struck me recently as a
> > bit odd. In the Windows version, if I click up into the address or
> > search boxes, the existing contents are highlighted and if I begin
> > typing, the existing text is deleted and what I'm typing becomes the
> > contents. On the Linux version, under KDE, it doesn't. I have to click
> > into the appropriate edit box, highlight the contents and start typing
> > or hit either home/end and then start deleting before typing my new URL.
> > If, for example, the existing text happens to be a google search string,
> > this can be quite a bit of text to delete.
> > 
> > 	So my question, I suppose, is multipart:
> > 
> > 1) Is this by design? Is this the normal behaviour?
> > 
> > 2) Have I set a USE flag wrong somewhere that causes this behaviour?
> > 
> > 3) How do people get around the problem I mentioned above regarding long
> > URL's, such as a Google search results?
> > 
> > 	Any thoughts, greatly appreciated,
> > 
> > 		Andrew
> > 
> Hi Andrew,
> 
> You might be interested in these settings (from about:config):
> 
> browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll
> browser.urlbar.doubleClickSelectsAll
> 
> You can configure what happens when you click in the address bar.
> 
> I have no idea why the defaults on win/linux are different, though,
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Paul

Would be nice to have it for the Search bar, also. Maybe this bug:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=416037

Re: [gentoo-user] Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Bruce Hill]

On Sun, May 17, 2015 at 09:01:18AM -0500, Bruce Hill wrote:
> On Sun, May 17, 2015 at 11:39:29AM +0200, Paul Klos wrote:
> > > 
> > Hi Andrew,
> > 
> > You might be interested in these settings (from about:config):
> > 
> > browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll
> > browser.urlbar.doubleClickSelectsAll
> > 
> > You can configure what happens when you click in the address bar.
> > 
> > I have no idea why the defaults on win/linux are different, though,
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > 
> > Paul
> 
> Would be nice to have it for the Search bar, also. Maybe this bug:
> 
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=416037

Just found by eXPerience that Pale Moon does both, be default.

[gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Grant Edwards]

On 2015-05-17, Andrew Lowe <agl@wht.com.au> wrote:

> I've been using Firefox for ages and something struck me recently as
> a bit odd. In the Windows version, if I click up into the address or
> search boxes, the existing contents are highlighted

Yeat, I _hate_ that.  

> and if I begin typing, the existing text is deleted and what I'm
> typing becomes the contents. On the Linux version, under KDE, it
> doesn't. I have to click into the appropriate edit box, highlight
> the contents and start typing or hit either home/end and then start
> deleting before typing my new URL.  If, for example, the existing
> text happens to be a google search string, this can be quite a bit
> of text to delete.
>
> 	So my question, I suppose, is multipart:
>
> 1) Is this by design? Is this the normal behaviour?

Yes.  That's how text widgets always work on Unix.

> 2) Have I set a USE flag wrong somewhere that causes this behaviour?

Nope, that is the correct behavior.

> 3) How do people get around the problem I mentioned above regarding long
>    URL's, such as a Google search results?

It's not a problem.  The way Windows works is a problem. On Linux, if
I want to replace what's already there I either:

 1) double-click on the URL to select it, then type the replacement.

or

 2) click in the text field, then hit Ctrl-A Ctrl-K, then type the
    replacement.

The second option requires you have emacs keybindings enabled.  Which
you should. :)

--
G

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 17 May 2015 18:16:16 +0000 (UTC), Grant Edwards wrote:

> > and if I begin typing, the existing text is deleted and what I'm
> > typing becomes the contents. On the Linux version, under KDE, it
> > doesn't. I have to click into the appropriate edit box, highlight
> > the contents and start typing or hit either home/end and then start
> > deleting before typing my new URL.  If, for example, the existing
> > text happens to be a google search string, this can be quite a bit
> > of text to delete.
> >
> > 	So my question, I suppose, is multipart:
> >
> > 1) Is this by design? Is this the normal behaviour?  
> 
> Yes.  That's how text widgets always work on Unix.

Unfortunately not :(

Chromium now selects the whole URL when you click in the address bar. I'm
not sure when it started doing this but it was quite recently.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

WinErr 010: Reserved for future mistakes by our developers

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Mick]

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On Sunday 17 May 2015 19:49:30 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Sun, 17 May 2015 18:16:16 +0000 (UTC), Grant Edwards wrote:
> > > and if I begin typing, the existing text is deleted and what I'm
> > > typing becomes the contents. On the Linux version, under KDE, it
> > > doesn't. I have to click into the appropriate edit box, highlight
> > > the contents and start typing or hit either home/end and then start
> > > deleting before typing my new URL.  If, for example, the existing
> > > text happens to be a google search string, this can be quite a bit
> > > of text to delete.
> > > 
> > > 	So my question, I suppose, is multipart:
> > > 1) Is this by design? Is this the normal behaviour?
> > 
> > Yes.  That's how text widgets always work on Unix.
> 
> Unfortunately not :(
> 
> Chromium now selects the whole URL when you click in the address bar. I'm
> not sure when it started doing this but it was quite recently.

This is not a problem at all, because this address bar auto-highlighting in  
Chromium does not take over the system clipboard.  When I click once it 
selects the whole address and I can delete it, before I middle click to insert 
whatever was in the clipboard.

As has already been commented, this won't work with FF, which replaces the 
clipboard when I necessarily double click to select the content of the address 
bar.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 17 May 2015 22:54:19 +0100, Mick wrote:

> > Chromium now selects the whole URL when you click in the address bar.
> > I'm not sure when it started doing this but it was quite recently.  
> 
> This is not a problem at all, because this address bar
> auto-highlighting in Chromium does not take over the system clipboard.
> When I click once it selects the whole address and I can delete it,
> before I middle click to insert whatever was in the clipboard.

True, it's not that problem, but it is still a problem in other ways, or
an annoyance at best.

And unlike Firefox, there does not appear to be a way to change it.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice?"

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Daniel Frey]

On 05/17/2015 02:54 PM, Mick wrote:
>> Chromium now selects the whole URL when you click in the address bar. I'm
>> not sure when it started doing this but it was quite recently.
> 
> This is not a problem at all, because this address bar auto-highlighting in  
> Chromium does not take over the system clipboard.  When I click once it 
> selects the whole address and I can delete it, before I middle click to insert 
> whatever was in the clipboard.
> 
> As has already been commented, this won't work with FF, which replaces the 
> clipboard when I necessarily double click to select the content of the address 
> bar.
> 

I didn't even know Firefox had this behaviour when clicking the address
bar, because it's something I never do.

I usually use Alt+D on the keyboard, it moves the caret to the location
bar and highlights its text, and I just checked, it doesn't touch the
clipboard.

Dan

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Mick]

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On Monday 18 May 2015 02:56:43 Daniel Frey wrote:
> On 05/17/2015 02:54 PM, Mick wrote:
> >> Chromium now selects the whole URL when you click in the address bar.
> >> I'm not sure when it started doing this but it was quite recently.
> > 
> > This is not a problem at all, because this address bar auto-highlighting
> > in Chromium does not take over the system clipboard.  When I click once
> > it selects the whole address and I can delete it, before I middle click
> > to insert whatever was in the clipboard.
> > 
> > As has already been commented, this won't work with FF, which replaces
> > the clipboard when I necessarily double click to select the content of
> > the address bar.
> 
> I didn't even know Firefox had this behaviour when clicking the address
> bar, because it's something I never do.
> 
> I usually use Alt+D on the keyboard, it moves the caret to the location
> bar and highlights its text, and I just checked, it doesn't touch the
> clipboard.
> 
> Dan

Useful tip!  I didn't know about Alt+D, thanks for sharing.  :-)

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Gevisz]

On Mon, 18 May 2015 06:26:31 +0100 Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Monday 18 May 2015 02:56:43 Daniel Frey wrote:
> > On 05/17/2015 02:54 PM, Mick wrote:
> > >> Chromium now selects the whole URL when you click in the address bar.
> > >> I'm not sure when it started doing this but it was quite recently.
> > > 
> > > This is not a problem at all, because this address bar auto-highlighting
> > > in Chromium does not take over the system clipboard.  When I click once
> > > it selects the whole address and I can delete it, before I middle click
> > > to insert whatever was in the clipboard.
> > > 
> > > As has already been commented, this won't work with FF, which replaces
> > > the clipboard when I necessarily double click to select the content of
> > > the address bar.
> > 
> > I didn't even know Firefox had this behaviour when clicking the address
> > bar, because it's something I never do.
> > 
> > I usually use Alt+D on the keyboard, it moves the caret to the location
> > bar and highlights its text, and I just checked, it doesn't touch the
> > clipboard.
> > 
> > Dan
> 
> Useful tip!  I didn't know about Alt+D, thanks for sharing.  :-)

The same does Ctrl-L.  

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Andrew Lowe]

On 05/18/2015 02:07 PM, Gevisz wrote:
> On Mon, 18 May 2015 06:26:31 +0100 Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Monday 18 May 2015 02:56:43 Daniel Frey wrote:
>>> On 05/17/2015 02:54 PM, Mick wrote:
>>>>> Chromium now selects the whole URL when you click in the address bar.
>>>>> I'm not sure when it started doing this but it was quite recently.
>>>>
>>>> This is not a problem at all, because this address bar auto-highlighting
>>>> in Chromium does not take over the system clipboard.  When I click once
>>>> it selects the whole address and I can delete it, before I middle click
>>>> to insert whatever was in the clipboard.
>>>>
>>>> As has already been commented, this won't work with FF, which replaces
>>>> the clipboard when I necessarily double click to select the content of
>>>> the address bar.
>>>
>>> I didn't even know Firefox had this behaviour when clicking the address
>>> bar, because it's something I never do.
>>>
>>> I usually use Alt+D on the keyboard, it moves the caret to the location
>>> bar and highlights its text, and I just checked, it doesn't touch the
>>> clipboard.
>>>
>>> Dan
>>
>> Useful tip!  I didn't know about Alt+D, thanks for sharing.  :-)
> 
> The same does Ctrl-L.  
> 
> 
> 

	Thanks to all those who commented. The Alt D & Alt L were good ones,
but I took Pauls advice and had a look at the config, which worked a
treat. In turn I might have a look at fixing the bug that Bruce mentioned.

	Regards,
		Andrew

[gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[»Q«]

On Mon, 18 May 2015 09:07:34 +0300
Gevisz <gevisz@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 18 May 2015 06:26:31 +0100 Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > On Monday 18 May 2015 02:56:43 Daniel Frey wrote:

> > > I usually use Alt+D on the keyboard, it moves the caret to the
> > > location bar and highlights its text, and I just checked, it
> > > doesn't touch the clipboard.
> > 
> > Useful tip!  I didn't know about Alt+D, thanks for sharing.  :-)
> 
> The same does Ctrl-L.  

ctrl+k does the same thing for the search box.  (And if the search box
is hidden in your UI, ctrl+k opens about:home and puts the carat in its
search box.)

For browsers a lot of things are mousey, but for inherently type-y
things, I really like the keyboard shortcuts.  All (or most) Fx ones are
listed at
<https://support.mozilla.org/kb/keyboard-shortcuts-perform-firefox-tasks-quickly>.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Daniel Frey]

On 05/19/2015 09:35 AM, »Q« wrote:
> ctrl+k does the same thing for the search box.  (And if the search box
> is hidden in your UI, ctrl+k opens about:home and puts the carat in its
> search box.)
> 
> For browsers a lot of things are mousey, but for inherently type-y
> things, I really like the keyboard shortcuts.  All (or most) Fx ones are
> listed at
> <https://support.mozilla.org/kb/keyboard-shortcuts-perform-firefox-tasks-quickly>.
> 

I didn't know that either. I've always found Alt+D the easiest to use,
and the search box to me is Alt+D then Tab.

Dan

[gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[Grant Edwards]

On 2015-05-17, Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
> On Sun, 17 May 2015 18:16:16 +0000 (UTC), Grant Edwards wrote:

[clicking the URL "text field" doesn't select the entire string, just
makes it active.]

>> > 1) Is this by design? Is this the normal behaviour?  
>> 
>> Yes.  That's how text widgets always work on Unix.
>
> Unfortunately not :(
>
> Chromium now selects the whole URL when you click in the address bar. I'm
> not sure when it started doing this but it was quite recently.

Bastards.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! Spreading peanut
                                  at               butter reminds me of
                              gmail.com            opera!!  I wonder why?

[gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[walt]

On 05/16/2015 10:52 PM, Andrew Lowe wrote:
> I've been using Firefox for ages and something struck me recently as a
> bit odd. In the Windows version, if I click up into the address or
> search boxes, the existing contents are highlighted and if I begin
> typing, the existing text is deleted and what I'm typing becomes the
> contents. On the Linux version, under KDE, it doesn't.

I've noticed that, when running linux, the end result of "selecting"
text can depend on which "Desktop Environment" you are using.  Some
DE's apparently interpose themselves between the ancient behavior of
the X server and their own implementations of "clipboard".

For better or worse, you are always running the same DE under Windows,
so the behavior of text selection should change only when Windows crashes :)

[gentoo-user] Re: Question for users of the Firefox browser

[»Q«]

On Sun, 17 May 2015 14:41:21 -0700
walt <w41ter@gmail.com> wrote:

> I've noticed that, when running linux, the end result of "selecting"
> text can depend on which "Desktop Environment" you are using.

Yes indeed.  If the DE comes with a clipboard manager (most do), it
pays to play around with the manager's config until the clipboard stops
annoying you.  Whether or not it syncs with the X clipboard and/or
whether it requires an explicit 'copy' command (as opposed to picking
up mere highlighting) should be set to suit the user's habits, rather
than the user trying to conform to the clipboard manager's defaults.