
Chrome removes Backspace to go back - ivank
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608016
======
klodolph
I'm going to take a somewhat contrarian view and say, "Thank you, Chrome
developers."

It's always easy to tell apart the people who know shortcuts from the people
who don't, if you watch them use their computers. Someone with a few shortcuts
on tap will zoom around their monitors, switching between mouse and keyboard
only when necessary.

But there are a few shortcuts and user interface quirks that are too outdated
and weird, and only serve to surprise and annoy us. They herald from an
earlier age when people were still figuring things out in new UI paradigms.
For example, these days, you expect the scroll wheel to scroll up and down in
a scrolling view. However, my coworker was changing some project settings in
Visual Studio the other day, and he tried to scroll through the settings while
a drop-down menu in the settings had focus. It scrolled through the menu
options, selecting them, instead of scrolling through the view. He had to
cancel the changes he was making and open the window again, because he
couldn't remember what was originally selected.

This is the worst kind of surprise. Something you thought was just supposed to
let you look at different parts of the interface instead modified the data you
were looking at. Backspace to go back is a similar surprise. It's supposed to
delete text, but instead it can navigate away from a page entirely, if you are
in the wrong state when you press backspace. For the same reason, I'm even
getting sick of the old middle mouse button paste, since it's too easy to
press when I'm scrolling.

Forward and back navigation are already mapped to alt + left and right arrow.
Let's reserve backspace for deleting text. (I'm not happy that it sometimes
means "navigate up a level", but that might tell you what kind of computer I
had growing up.)

~~~
mstade
But there are _better_ solutions. Comment #35 in that thread actually provides
one:

> The problem: Moving away from a form can result in data loss.

> Your solution: Make it harder to move away.

> The correct solution: Cache tab history completely and make it easy to move
> forward and backward in a tab's history by reusing cache and maintaining
> form contents.

(Source:
[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608016...](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608016#c35))

Safari does this, for instance, and yes it does happen that I accidentally the
whole thing by hitting backspace, but it's _OK_ because I know if I just go
forward again, it'll all still be there – fully intact.

~~~
eslaught
> > The correct solution: Cache tab history completely [...]

This is not a solution for the majority of users. The problem with keyboard
shortcuts is that most users won't know what happened. All they'll know is
that suddenly they're not on the same page any more, and then won't realize
they've navigated backwards. Therefore they won't think to navigate forwards
again, and they won't get back to their form data, even if it is cached.

This happens to me all the time in Emacs. I'll press something by accident,
make major unintended changes to my file, and have no idea what I did.
Fortunately, Emacs has a way to look up key presses, but this is a relatively
advanced feature that typically doesn't exist in other tools anyway.

Whenever you have a feature with zero discoverability (e.g. essentially all
keyboard shortcuts), you have to be very careful to avoid the "what did I just
do?" phenomenon, even if you provide ways to get back to a previous state. I
personally think this change by the Chrome devs is extremely reasonable in
that regard.

Edit: I realize that these changes are aggravating to users who actually use
them on a regular basis. However, please also realize that they are not zero-
cost, because they do impose a constant and non-trivial burden on everyone
else (especially in cases like backspace which are relatively easy to hit on
accident).

~~~
ultramancool
> because they do impose a constant and non-trivial burden on everyone else
> (especially in cases like backspace which are relatively easy to hit on
> accident).

So make them an option and stop taking the Chrome route of stripping out
everything that more advanced users use regularly.

Of course, this is why I run Firefox. I can do things like force OCSP enabled
and get error pages when it fails - Chrome's solution was to call OCSP useless
because their less technical users couldn't understand it.

Even Firefox has buried the option behind about:config and the scariest thing
for me now is that we'll lose the control we get with current FF options and
extensions as they "modernize" the browser.

Advanced users want this level of control.

~~~
stouset
There's a cost to this too, in terms of development effort. Yeah, one option
isn't a big deal, but multiply this by the gajillion times that developers
have to make a choice between something < 1% of their users want and what >
99% of their users want.

Backspace-as-back-button is not an "advanced feature". It's a hotkey that
essentially no other software uses for the same behavior and one which
conflicts crappily with the fundamental behavior of that key. It will take
you, generously, a day to relearn the new hotkey. Instead you'd rather the
developers maintain indefinitely an option and corresponding logic to support
your existing use-case.

If you can't tell, my level of empathy for this kind of griping is roughly
zero. Adapt to the new hotkey and save the complaining for something that
actually matters.

~~~
ultramancool
Sure, I understand your argument, but this is what addons are for.

Users who want it can install an addon for it.

Chrome on the other hand has such weak addon APIs that they are often unable
to achieve what's needed. Firefox seems to be moving in the same direction
unfortunately.

I think it's worth it for those developers to at least maintain full addon
APIs, even though there's a trade-off here it greatly increases the
flexibility of the product.

~~~
recursive
Is it not actually possible to implement this with an addon? It seems possible
with a small script embedded in each page. If an addon can't do this, what
could it possibly actually do?

~~~
ultramancool
In this case yes it should be, but I was getting at a larger problem - try to
do this with something like Tree Style Tabs, DownThemAll, etc.

------
Jedd
Chrome / Chromium have a habit of making these arbitrary changes that
seriously annoy some (arguably small) percentage of their users, while
claiming that it makes it simpler / better for everyone else, while explaining
impatiently why it's infeasible to make the now missing feature a
configuration option.

Evidently the kinds of people that can't be bothered going into the Advanced
Configuration Settings page would be confused by an additional item in the
Advanced Configuration Settings page.

I never used the backspace button for back (though it's probably what's mapped
to my mouse button #8 - I'll know on the next upgrade), but I did get mightily
annoyed by two changes a while back, and am always happy to bring them up
whenever there's a story about Chrom* devs doing this kind of thing.

1\. snap-to-mouse - while dragging the scrollbar, if you move the mouse
further than ~80 pixels away from the scrollbar column, the page jumps back to
the original location - apparently MS Windows users love this feature, but
chrome/chromium is the only application I've found on GNU/Linux that does
this, and

2\. clicking inside the URL bar selects the whole contents - apparently MS
Windows users are used to this feature, but chrome/chromium is the only
application I've found on GNU/Linux that does this.

No idea what the defaults are for OSX, and, really, it doesn't matter - these
features should be sensitive to extant defaults on whatever desktop
environment the browser finds itself running on.

~~~
cptskippy
I'm primarily on Windows and that first feature annoys the heck out of me. I
would rather scrolling stop or continue, but the snap-back when the mouse
leaves a zone is irritating.

I think the second is more of an optimization because when you click on the
address bar you're most likely either copying or overwriting the URL. It's
much less common to modify it.

If you want a supremely annoying address bar, you should check out Windows
File Explorer from Vista/7 onward. Each component of the URI is a drop down
menu item and only by clicking on whitespace to the far right can you get to
the actual URI.

~~~
Nr7
The file explorer address bar was one of the best features that were
introduced in Vista IMO.

If you're in folder "C:\foo\bar\baz\boz\" and want to go to "C:\foo\" it's
just one mouse click. Or if you want to go to "C:\foo\bor" that's just two
mouse clicks. Much faster than clicking "back" or "up" multiple times.

~~~
croon
Well, to be fair if you have the much older tree view enabled on the left side
of the explorer, it's only one click to go to C:\foo\bor.

I agree with parent, the adress bar should be the adress bar. Also better for
sans-mouse-use. Just F6 and end, ctrl+shift+left arrow until you get to before
"bar" and then backspace, enter.

Sure, it's more input but it's still way faster than reaching for your mouse.

~~~
jdhzzz
(old guy here) I'll never understand why the left-pane tree view isn't the
default. Not having it follow the current directory makes it a waste of screen
real estate.

------
ruipgil
I might be the minority here, but I think that using the backspace to go back
is counter intuitive. In my mind backspace is to delete something, and I
always worry about that.

~~~
crzwdjk
This is great news. For some use cases, backspace-as-back is a disaster
waiting to happen, for example, in a complex web app used in some time-
critical task and that requires occasional deleting of text but can lose state
or take a while to reload if you accidentally hit back. If you hit backspace
without having a text field focused, the whole thing dies and needs to be
reloaded and possibly checked to make sure it's still working right, while
hundreds of people are anxiously watching and waiting. I have seen laptops
with the backspace key physically ripped out just to prevent people from
accidentally triggering its back-button behavior.

~~~
malz
Giant web forms have been a usability disaster since day one. Accidental back
button, link click, window close, session timeout, etc, increase the chance of
a failure and need to re-enter the entire form. Whereas for at least 40 years
desktop software has given you a "sure you don't want to save?" option.

~~~
kbenson
I've lost HN comment data 10-15 minutes into a reply by using a laptop with an
overly sensitive touchpad. Multiple times. Not something I particularly enjoy,
and that's just a single input field.

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
Seems like the Chromium solution is to remove your touchpad.

------
floatboth
Good. I always set browser.backspace_action to do nothing in Firefox, because
this is SO infuriating. You _think_ you have a text field focused but you
actually don't (e.g. accidental mouse click removed the focus), you press
Backspace and BOOM! suddenly you're on the previous page.

Ctrl/Cmd+[ and ] is the real shortcut!

~~~
RGamma
I'm quite the opposite opinion and use Backspace to go back extensively,
because it means that I can browse the web with one hand on my laptop with
trackpoint.

If you're accidently clicking on things, maybe learn to use a mouse better.

P.S.: Oh and if it's a crappy touchpad making unwanted inputs, then I share
your concern (and probably a good time to look at other laptop keyboards;
turning off the touchpad on this Lenovo was among the first things I did). But
still, they really should make this an option...

~~~
Fogest
How small are your hands if you can't one hand ALT+ Left arrow?

~~~
RGamma
That's an ergonomic nightmare. The right-click->Back approach works too, but
some sites like to mess with that and I must watch out to not click the wrong
element, so backspace is still my go-to choice.

------
oneeyedpigeon
One of the contributors states:

"Building an extension for this should be very simple."

Why on earth isn't there just a generic keyboard-shortcut preference where I
can control every possible browser action and its associated keyboard
shortcut? In fact, why isn't this available at an OS level? Surely it would
remove a lot of unnecessary duplicate code.

~~~
coldpie
Firefox still has Ctrl-Q to close the current window, which is right next to
Ctrl-W to close the current tab on a English keyboard. This is the first
extension I install: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-
ctrl-...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-ctrl-q-
shortcut/)

Dumb.

~~~
scurvy
In OS X, I always map cmd-q to the system-wide accessibility feature for zoom
in. Then change the zoom factor to 0x. It effectively neuters cmd-q.

~~~
cpeterso
I map CMD+Q to "Hide Others", which is pretty harmless and doesn't affect the
current application.

------
dandare
"We have UseCounters showing that 0.04% of page views navigate back via the
backspace button and 0.005% of page views are after a form interaction. The
latter are often cases where the user loses data. Years of user complaints
have been enough that we think it's the right choice to change this given the
degree of pain users feel by losing their data and because every platform has
another keyboard combination that navigates back."

Personally I am shocked that the Chromium team ignored years of user
complaints before they decided to fix what their own usability studies found
to be a worthless yet painful gimmick.

~~~
Captain_Usher
I'm shocked they reacted to the complaints at all. Chrome is infamous for
painful UX blunders that Google refuses to acknowledge, let alone fix. Mouse
thumb buttons are permanently bound to forward and back, the only workaround
is to use your mouse's driver or a third-party input mapper to bind them to
something else. The Android version cannot re-order tabs (or use extensions.
Seriously.) The Google product forums are a sad wasteland of people with
simple problems shouting into the void. Here's a thread from 2010:

[https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/R-wESj...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/R-wESj1EIk8)

These advanced power users want the unfathomable ability to _install Chrome in
a different directory._ The only solution involves downloading the Windows
"Junction" utility and creating a symbolic link. Surprisingly, an actual
employee (uh, "Googler," whatever that means) deigns to appear, but only to
inform everyone that there is no solution except to download Chrome from
Google Pack. The Pack version won't let you pick a location either, but its
default is different, or at least it was until Google Pack was discontinued.

You know what, I think I'm just going to see how Firefox has been doing. I
can't even remember why I switched.

~~~
chipperyman573
Is there a mobile browser that does allow extensions?

~~~
zamalek
Firefox on Android. Been using it for a few days with uBlock origin and it
seems quite worthwhile.

In general I've found that FF have been proactively fixing their perf, memory
and usability stories. With exception to the rare occurrence such as this,
Chrome has been on a steady decline.

------
ChrisArgyle
Analysis from Chrome devs here
[https://codereview.chromium.org/1854963002](https://codereview.chromium.org/1854963002)

Though I am a frequent user of backspace in Chrome I'm inclined to agree with
their decision. Almost no one is using it and casual users are confused by it.

I'll just wait for someone to implement the feature in an extension.

~~~
el_duderino
If it is implemented in an extension, would it require the "Allow access to
all of the web sites I visit" permission?

I'm always a bit apprehensive to enable those sort of extensions.

~~~
egeozcan
Wait someone to implement it then extract source or implement it yourself, but
rather than going through the store, add the code you inspected/wrote to the
browser by enabling "Developer mode" in the Extensions (chrome://extensions/)
then clicking "Load unpacked extension".

This would be a very simple piece of code so getting no updates is actually
better for security in this case IMHO.

~~~
runlevel1
Chrome now disables it unless it's in the app store:

[https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2811969?hl=en](https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2811969?hl=en)

EDIT: And prompts you to disable it at startup if it's unpacked.

~~~
egeozcan
Well, yes, having a popup[1] on startup can be less or more annoying than
submitting the thing to the Chrome store yourself depending on how often you
restart your browser.

[1]: [http://i.imgur.com/qX8bNcl.png](http://i.imgur.com/qX8bNcl.png)

~~~
Jordrok
That fucking popup is the thing that finally drove me to drop Chrome and go
back to Firefox on my home PC. Of course, now Mozilla is starting to go all in
on extension signing too, so the joke's on me.

~~~
crummel
Waterfox aims to get rid of some of these annoyances:
[https://www.waterfoxproject.org/](https://www.waterfoxproject.org/).

------
kibwen
This is going to sound hyperbolic, I'm sure, but backspace-as-back is
enormously important to my browsing experience. When I recently installed
Ubuntu I had a small moment of panic when I realized that hitting backspace in
Firefox performed some Ubuntu-specific thing rather than navigating backwards
(as it does in Windows), but fortunately there's an about:config pref to re-
enable the behavior. Just my two cents.

~~~
tjalex
Agreed -- I am surprised (/disappointed?) they didn't add a replacement
shortcut e.g. Alt+Backspace or something similar.

~~~
lstamour
I thought Alt+Left arrow and Alt+right arrow (or some variant) were universal?

~~~
thiht
Alt+Left requires moving both hands, Backspace is only one finger away

If only Alt-Gr+Left or Right Ctrl+Left worked...

~~~
jemfinch
Alt+Left requires two fingers, but not two hands. You're aware of the alt to
the right of the space bar, yes?

~~~
handelaar
On American keyboards.

~~~
JdeBP
It's not the keyboards. It's the keyboard layouts that are configured in
software. And not all "American" keyboard layouts make that key an Alt
modifier. The Microsoft Windows "United States International" keyboard layout
makes it level 3 shift, for example.

And if one includes North America and South America in "American" the same
goes for the Canadian Multilingual and the Brazilian Portuguese layouts. (-:

------
FollowSteph3
I think this is very good. I can't tell you the number of times I've lost form
data by hitting backspace.

For those wondering how, if you do control backspace to erase a word etc igs
very easy to miss, especially as you transition between word delete and single
character delete.

The other common use case for errors is when u think you're in a field editing
and you're actually not, bam, you just lost all your form data.

I also like the idea that backspace is for text editing and not for a second
feature such as navigation. For enter yes but not backspace

------
EdSharkey
This feels a bit like how Esc was nerfed over the years in Firefox and others
until it essentially did nothing. It used to mean STOP. All sockets were
closed, the page stopped loading, and I think way waaay back, even animated
gifs stopped cycling and JavaScript timeouts and intervals were cancelled.

Single-page webapps were the death of Esc, it was too confusing to users to
have a page suddenly hang because they pressed Esc for some reason and all the
XHR connections silently closed. "Stopping" just no longer made sense.

Just going to need to train the old timers on the new key strokes. It is sad
though when convenient controls are taken away.

~~~
makecheck
Or maybe, it is well past time for browsers to have two concepts: “page” and
“application” windows.

That way, web sites that are really trying to be applications can have one set
of logical keystrokes, default security models, etc. and plain web pages can
have another set. They could be further distinguished by some kind of
difference in window frame.

~~~
chc
I like this idea, but I feel like it would be hard to make sense of in
practice. Many things that people would think of as "plain web pages" might
have to be classified as applications just because they have some AJAX
components. That would satisfy some curmudgeons who don't like what JavaScript
has done to the Web, but it would be confusing to the point of worthlessness
for everyone else. The alternative is to be extremely liberal about what you
classify as a "page," which seems like it would basically be the status quo.

~~~
makecheck
That could be true but consider that on the desktop we have had “files” and
“applications” for years without much of a problem. In fact, any time a
document tried to do too much ( _ahem_ Adobe Reader) it turned into a bloated
mess and we preferred simpler formats.

------
gjvc
This is most annoying. I have used this for the past twenty years and have not
lost form data using it. In any event, chrome seems to remember form contents
upon navigating back to a form page.

Leave my muscle memory alone please.

~~~
rayiner
I lose form data by accidentally using backspace like once a month. Glad to
see it go. It's the worst kind of UI modality because it does different things
depending on whether you've reached the beginning of the form. I like to mash
backspace to clear out a form. Imagine if pressing "CTRL-S" saved if there
were edits, but deleted your file if you'd already saved. People who mash
"CTRL-S" habitually would be screwed.

It's especially pointless now that everyone has a touchpad or touchscreen and
can swipe back and forth.

~~~
stephenr
> I lose form data by accidentally using backspace like once a month

Use a browser that will warn you about losing un-submitted form contents
before navigating away?

> It's especially pointless now that everyone has a touchpad or touchscreen
> and can swipe back and forth.

I think we have very different definitions of "everyone".

~~~
kijin
> Use a browser that will warn you about losing un-submitted form contents
> before navigating away?

Most browsers don't do this. If you see a warning like that, it's usually
triggered by javascript on the web page itself.

~~~
stephenr
Safari added protection for 'unsaved forms' when closing a window/tab in v3,
which was released about 9 years ago.

~~~
fixermark
Great. I'll get right on installing Safari on my Ubuntu machine.

~~~
stephenr
I didn't say it's available everywhere I said there is another solution
(already working in another browser) besides removing a very long lived
keyboard shortcut.

------
pfarnsworth
Thank GOD. So many times I've been filling out forms and sometimes I hit
backspace to delete something, and maybe I clicked on a dropdown, but it goes
back one page and I lose everything. Not the end of the world, but pretty
annoying and I'm glad they're removing this.

------
spo81rty
This has always been annoying when doing it on accident. Good riddance!

~~~
gjvc
Chrome remembers form contents upon navigating back to a form page.

~~~
lokedhs
Sometimes pages are too clever such that it's not possible to navigate back to
the form.

And I'm using the word clever in its most negative way here.

------
crazygringo
Finally! It's about time. I don't know who ever thought having a command that
didn't use a modifier key was a good idea -- it's not just about losing form
data (even if that's protected against), a webpage can have all sorts of
"state" you don't want to lose.

Also, what's so hard with tapping Cmd+Left or Ctrl+Left to go back? It's all
I've ever done, incredibly intuitive, and simply to do with one hand (using
the right Cmd button), at least on most keyboards I've seen.

~~~
thiht
Alt is on the left of the keyboard, Left is on the right of the keyboard...
It's annoying to use both hands for such a frequent task

~~~
recursive
On every keyboard I've ever seen, there's another alt on the right side of the
spacebar which works equally well.

------
djwbrown
Cumulative time wasted using 'Command+[': none. Cumulative time wasted due to
overloading of the backspace key: hours.

Relying on current context to determine the behavior of backspace was a
terrible idea from the start. To hell with your muscle memory. Re-learn a
shortcut that makes sense, and which will save you time one day, rather than
insisting with hacker-machismo that _you 've_ never lost data in a form.

------
dhd415
I think comment #32
([https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608016...](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608016#c32))
is worth highlighting:

    
    
      If you can fill out a formular field correctly without losing focus, you are not part of Chrome's target audience.
    
      edit: Had to type this four times due to accidently going back.

~~~
mstade
Hah, that's funny! But also, comment #35 is on point:

> The problem: Moving away from a form can result in data loss.

> Your solution: Make it harder to move away.

> The correct solution: Cache tab history completely and make it easy to move
> forward and backward in a tab's history by reusing cache and maintaining
> form contents.

(Source:
[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608016...](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608016#c35))

I never have this problem in Safari, and I use backspace all the time for
navigating back.

~~~
djrogers
> I never have this problem in Safari, and I use backspace all the time for
> navigating back.

That's funny, because I've got a brand new install of El Cap in from top me,
and backspace does nothing in Safari. Maybe you turned on an option or
accessibility feature somewhere?

~~~
theOnliest
Ditto...this (along with the fact that the width of tabs expands to fill the
entire bar) is one of the main reasons I stopped using Safari and went back to
Firefox.

------
itslennysfault
⌘← master race!!!

...but seriously, if I had a dollar for every time I've tried to hit "delete"
(backspace on mac) to delete something I had selected in a web app and had it
navigate back losing my unsaved changes I'd have a couple bucks.

It's rare, but it's annoying when it does happen.

------
nikanj
I can't count the number of times I've noticed a typo in a form, hit shift-tab
one time too many or few, hit backspace and ended up losing all of the info I
filled in. The forward button mostly just leads to "resubmit form data?",
instead of bringing me back.

------
jneal
I've personally always used alt+left to go back. I know backspace does the
same thing, but the only reason I know that is because I seem to hit more
frequently than you'd expect while not focused on a form field causing my
browser to go back unexpectedly. I've never lost data, though, it always seems
to persists when I go forward.

------
greggman
Oh thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!!

I can't tell you how many times I've lost data because of backspace! Good
riddance.

Now, please also get rid of pull down to refresh in iOS Chrome because that
has also lost me data a ton of times as well. I don't even know who uses that
feature. I don't need to refresh most pages and if I do there are better ways.

------
hosh
The very first comment says:

"How is someone who grew up in terminal times expected to navigate back when
using a two-button mouse?"

I grew up in terminal times. I was lucky that, while growing up, I had access
to my father's Unix account through the university. Not only that, I do all of
my development work on the terminal (via tmux, vim, and spacemacs). I _like_
the terminal. I love keyboard shortcuts. Keeping my hands in the home row --
awesome!

The backspace in the browser has always struck me as misfeature. I've lost
data when typing in forms.

In contrast, when I browse a page, I rarely hit the back button. I'm more
likely to open a link in a new page when I am doing serious research.

Times move on. Some things are lost, and our civilization is not for the
better. This is not one of those cases.

------
slavik81
My first instinct was to bemoan it's loss, but after thinking about it, I make
this mistake far too often.

I actually just lost a draft of an annual self-assessment to this. I wanted to
delete some text, but I guess I didn't have focus in the text box, and hit
back. The form was created by an awful website (PeopleSoft/Oracle), so hitting
forward didn't bring my data back.

Sure, it was just 20 minutes of work. Sure, a better website would have had
the fields autosaved, or at least not have broken the browser autofill. Sure,
I could have written it in a different program and then pasted into a browser.

But seriously, that should never happen. Not like that.

------
davb
They say 0.04% of page views are a result of pressing backspace. 0.04% sounds
small but imagine how many page views per month there are, globally, with
Chrome. That's. Significant number.

Backspace sure is an unusual navigation choice these days, and perhaps
wouldn't make sense to code in new software. But in browsers, backspace to
navigate back is expect behaviour.

This isn't the first time the Chrome or Chromium teams have made sweeping
changes based on usage stats, pissing off the minority who use those features
and pushing ever closer to a browser with only the lowest common denominator
features that everyone uses.

------
mstade
I wonder if this is in any way related to the exceptionally annoying thing on
google.com, where if you hit backspace it doesn't navigate back, but starts
removing characters from your search. It does this with other keypresses too,
presumably so you can just keep typing till you find whatever you're looking
for, but it's a flagrant disregard for my action of moving focus _from_ the
input field.

In any event, I use backspace to navigate back _all the time_ , so this is
sure to annoy me to no end. Especially since I use multiple browsers, and
it'll be hard to break habits. Ah well..

~~~
rmetzler
Yeah, Chromium on Linux comes without the backspace history navigation for
quite some time and I configured it to do the right thing for me: going back
in history.

------
_pferreir_
As a web application developer, I second the motion to officially thank the
Chrome development team for this. "Backspace" triggering "back" is a usability
disaster, and not only for inexperienced users. We recently had issues with a
3rd party editor widget losing focus due to a bug, which led to people
accidentally triggering "back" and losing their data (it was a rich text
field, so you can imagine how much of a problem that was). Sure, the problem
here was the widget, but using such a commonly pressed key as the shortcut for
a potentially destructive operation is a recipe for disaster. More advanced
users have the option to use a custom extension, or even mouse gestures. Just
develop an "Advanced Chrome" plugin and the problem will be solved.

As a side note, it's interesting to see how such a small change (which, as
mentioned above is even reversible) can trigger such an outcry. I've read
stuff such as "I've been using this shortcut for 20 years" or "I don't want an
extension"... are those even arguments? Yes, applications should be "user-
centred" but the "user" here is a collective of thousands or millions of
people with their own incompatible opinions. There is a (very good) reason for
this change and I've seen zero achievable solutions that would not imply it.

------
hkjgkjy
All True Hackers use shift-h anyways ;-)
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vimium/dbepggeogba...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vimium/dbepggeogbaibhgnhhndojpepiihcmeb)

~~~
stygiansonic
I think I found out about Vimium through an HN post/comment and I've been
using it ever since. It's pretty much the first Chrome extension I get after a
fresh install, along with uBlock origin.

------
Hermel
Finally! I don't know how often I accidentally navigated away from a page by
pressing backspace while writing in a textbox.

------
jbb555
They don't spend any time fixing everything that's broken with modern
computers, instead they spend time changing things that weren't broken. Great.

------
retbull
Good fuck that was annoying. I actually came up with a new work flow for all
browsers because of this. I always open links in a new tab so if I want to go
back I have to close the tab and if I want to go forward I will middle click
to open in a new tab. This only falls apart when I run into a multi-page form
or application that requires text. When that happens I hate that backspace
goes back.

------
pbiggar
Well done Chrome. While it's the way that I go back and I now need to change
my habits, this is the kind of hard decision that you need to make to have a
really great product. They weighed the upsides and downsides, and pissed off a
small subset of people (esp on HN who are likely to be the backspace-as-back
users) to make a better experience. Bravo!

------
marcusarmstrong
Finally! I can get rid of my third party extension to get rid of this insane
behavior.

------
Mithaldu
So they applied the wrong fix, to a problem that had been solved a decade ago.

The problem: Moving away from a form can result in data loss.

Their solution: Make it harder to move away?

The actual solution implemented more than a decade ago: Cache history
completely and make it easy to move forward and backward in a tab's history
while maintaining form contents.

~~~
pfg
The problem with that solution is, at least in my experience, that it doesn't
really work reliably for most "rich" web apps , which are more and more
common. (I understand that this is a controversial topic in its own light.)

I can understand where they're coming from, and I'd be fine with a browser
extension. Hopefully the one a Chrome developer is working on[1] will be
available before this Chrome release hits stable.

[1]:
[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608016...](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=608016#c22)

~~~
Mithaldu
Sadly implementing it as an extension is a security issue, as mentioned
elsewhere plenty.

~~~
pfg
I seem to have read this as "that extension won't be a content script (i.e.
require access to all websites, like the existing extension)" initially, but
on second reading, that might not be the case (and might, in fact, not be
possible at all with the current APIs). Not too happy about having to add that
kind of extension unless it's released by some trusted publisher ...

------
Pharylon
I guess I can uninstall Backstop now (a Chrome extension that literally exists
only to disable backspace to go back). I've been running it for years now.

For you 1% of people that actually use the Backspace key for going back, I'm
sure someone will come up with an extension to re-enable it, don't worry.

------
okonomiyaki3000
Thank the gods! I can't imagine who ever thought backspace as back was a good
idea in the first place.

------
grandalf
I've never used backspace for nav intentionally, and it has caused annoying
data loss for me a few times.

It's never made sense to me why this behavior was ever added to browsers. The
logical choice would have been the left arrow key (since there is a
corresponding right arrow).

~~~
pfg
> The logical choice would have been the left arrow key (since there is a
> corresponding right arrow).

Without some sort of modifier key, this would come with the same set of
problems, i.e. failing to focus a text field while using it to move the cursor
would trigger navigation. It's also used to scroll horizontally, so it would
break other functionality. Alt + LeftArrow already works.

------
brudgers
Having a friend who often operates their keyboard by the old stick between
their teeth method, I'd like to see an analysis demonstrating that the
breaking change improves accessibility. Particularly since the alternative
posed in the thread is the chorded alt-left.

~~~
goda90
I imagine this friend could benefit from a keyboard with extra programmable
buttons. Of course you can't expect that for all accessibility needs.

~~~
brudgers
I've known Tim for almost twenty years. He's been on the web as long as I've
known him...and given he was making money as a freelance CAD jockey when we
met, I suspect longer than that. We'd been in school together a couple of
years [me continuously, Tim off and on as being a quad comes with a raft of
issues beyond asshat developers breaking the web] when we were both working in
the computer lab of the college of architecture. Needless to say, the lab
wasn't uniformly equipped with special keyboards nor all the machines loaded
with custom adaptive software. Interface standardization and a resourcefulness
I am utterly in awe of, allowed him to just do what needed doing.

This is breaking a standard interface. One group of people upon whom it most
likely places a burden are those who are likely to have other shit to deal
with already. Google ain't mailing out special keyboards to everyone who might
need them. I don't imagine you're stepping up to fill that need either.

------
Kadin
Striking a blow for mediocrity. Ugh.

If there was really a problem with data loss, the better solution would seem
to be warning the user before navigating away from the page. Removing a
widely-used single-key behavior in order to protect users from themselves
seems like a bad prioritization.

It'd be nice if we could still have software that is unashamedly _not_ trying
to target some sort of Archie Bunker "low information" user. Even the big
Linux distros seem obsessed with making things easy for some hypothetical
moron-in-a-hurry, at the expense of actual users who know what they're doing.
It's unfortunate, and it seems to be a sort of antipattern that's infected a
lot of software design. It wasn't always this way: there used to be an
expectation that users would learn to use software, and that like any tool, if
misused you could mess things up. Somewhere along the line, we've decided that
it's unacceptable to tell users that they need to learn how to use software
instead of blindly stabbing at it and expecting it to protect them.

I'm not against sane defaults or warning users before they really do something
horrible, but the current trend towards ripping out anything and everything
that might possibly be 'confusing' seems to be far overstepping the mark.

Firefox isn't much better, but at least they haven't Nerfed the back button.

------
azinman2
I love how most of the comments on the bug tracker are "I've never lost data
so therefore no one has and this should go back because I'm used to it."

Typical myopic power users...

~~~
ryanlol
What's wrong with that attitude? Given the lack of alternatives being offered
that seems like a perfectly acceptable complaint.

~~~
azinman2
Given lol is in your username I can't tell if you're trolling or serious...

~~~
ryanlol
Oh I'm entirely serious. Obviously nobody thinks that nobody else has ever
lost data by accidentally pressing backspace, but I think most people can
agree that it's simply not a good enough reason to completely remove such an
established feature.

~~~
azinman2
If you read the comments on the bug it's lots of people's position that losing
data isn't real ("I've never had it happen", "Chrome remembers form data",
etc). That's a silly position since it does happen, and this kind of error is
the one that generally affects novices the most who are the least capable to
deal with it or understand what happened.

If you've ever lost data and especially don't know why/how, then you know that
super sucks and shouldn't ever happen period. Removing this prevents data
loss, that's a UX win.

It's bizarre that it's happening in 2016, but better late than never. You
still have power user alt/cmd-left so the keyboard can navigate, and if you're
super duper keyboard person then you can install one of the vim navigation
extensions or use an extension that preserves the backspace.

You say established feature, but I bet if you surveyed something like 20% or
less would know about this.

------
davesque
I agree with this. Accidentally going back when you lose focus on a text field
is super annoying.

------
jdelaney
I wrote a quick Chrome extension to fix this for those interested.

Extension: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/back-to-
backspace/...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/back-to-
backspace/cldokedgmomhbifmiiogjjkgffhcbaec)

Source: [https://github.com/j-delaney/back-to-
backspace](https://github.com/j-delaney/back-to-backspace)

------
kbenson
About time! I've been seriously annoyed a number of times when doing text/data
entry (on this very site!) where somehow I removed focus from the input, and
then tried to erase some text, only to find it going back a page, and my input
is gone when I browse back forward (this problem is exacerbated by inputs that
don't exist until Javascript creates them from some page event).

When using a laptop with a sensitive touchpad, this can get _really_ bad.

------
djrconcepts
Great News! I have never intentionally hit backspace to go back, and yet I've
hit backspace on accident and been taken many times. Quite annoying when it
happens.

------
emodendroket
I have to say, I find it a lot more common that I accidentally lose focus
inside a text box and go back than that I intentionally use that shortcut.

------
logicallee
I'm a bit late to the party (already 408 comments) but, guys, here is an
example of what happens currently in many browsers:

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CURRENT DEFAULT "BACKSPACE" BEHAVIOR IN MANY BROWSERS:

[https://imgur.com/V5FHZOH](https://imgur.com/V5FHZOH)

(this example is not prescriptive, it's just what happens)

At any rate, the GIF shows the current situation. You should watch it.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MY COMMENTS:

I actually wrote to this app creator that they should throw up a confirmation
window ( like these
[https://www.google.com/search?q=confirm+navigation&tbm=isch](https://www.google.com/search?q=confirm+navigation&tbm=isch)
)

but the fact is that the browser is the one that decided to navigate away. Now
what's very interesting, is that even in this, HN's, thread we have people
saying "Yes!!!" and people saying "No!!!" to the change.

So people who simply have never used backspace for navigation, like me, have
many times accidentally touched backspace or thought we were focused on a
form, and ended up losing data (because the page didn't throw up a
confirmation window after navigating back, and after clicking forward the page
is blank again.) While other people, who have no convenient single key they
can use to navigate back, have come to rely on it. I'm not sure what the
solution is, but here's the current situation so everyone understands it.

------
YeGoblynQueenne
_We have UseCounters showing that 0.04% of page views navigate back via the
backspace button and 0.005% of page views are after a form interaction. The
latter are often cases where the user loses data. Years of user complaints
have been enough that we think it 's the right choice to change this given the
degree of pain users feel by losing their data and because every platform has
another keyboard combination that navigates back.

We're doing this via a flag so that we can control this behavior should there
be sufficient outcry. _

oOh dear lord, that's a _horrible_ idea. You make a change to your software to
fix a problem that is not caused _by_ your software? If a form is confusing
enough that the user thinks they have focus when they don't and ends up losing
data then that's an issue with the form, isn't it? Not the browser and not the
button.

~~~
tremon
What makes you say that the problem is not caused by Chrome? I mean, Chrome is
the user agent here, it handles both the form display and form input.

However, I agree it's a poor solution. They could have chosen to track
modification of form fields on the page and display a confirmation dialog when
backspace is pressed.

------
swingedseraph
Do I like this? Yes. Should it be an immutable part of the interface and not
configurable? No. That's ridiculous.

------
avehn
People who cannot use a mouse or see a screen, who rely exclusively on
keyboard commands, will be greatly affected by this change.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day
[https://www.w3.org/WAI/perspectives/](https://www.w3.org/WAI/perspectives/)

~~~
phasmantistes
Those folks are already using Alt+<arrow keys>, because that is guaranteed to
work no matter what element is focused.

------
soheil
This is actually a no brainer, many times I have accidentally tapped on my
mousepad while typing and took the focus away from a textarea then noticed a
typo and tried to delete it and baaam you're no longer on that page and
possibly all the text you typed has gone into the abyss.

------
whoisthemachine
Positive change in my book. This key was always overloaded, leading to
unintentional usages. Using backspace as a "navigate back in history" shortcut
never worked reliable for me in any of the browsers I've used extensively
(Chrome, FF, and IE).

------
samuellb
I welcome this change, because I've lost a lot of form data with the backspace
key. Not specifically in Chrome, because I remember having the same problem
with IE 6 at the time when Firefox was still in alpha and was called
"Phoenix".

Now I wish that the Thunderbird developers also remove or change their single
letter shortcuts that are easy to mis-type. E.g. "A" for archive, which
creates an undeletable "Archive" folder in your mail account. There's a
bugzilla issue for it here:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=615957](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=615957)

------
jasonm23
Wontfix - just apply the worst possible, cruddy fix and shut down discussion.

Forgive me if I do not applaud.

------
Osiris
This is why I switched to Vivaldi. All the shortcut keys are customizable. It
also includes mouse gestures for quick back/forward with the mouse. I prefer
having the choice than someone else dictating.

------
daveloyall
I got to this thread late, sorry.

Here's the thing about Chrome... They don't want power users.

Remember when you first switched to Chrome? That sleek little pastel colored
window _elegantly_ fast. It worked on most websites. It was notably fast on
Gmail, which at the time was the slowest website you spent a lot of time on.

You didn't mind that Chrome wasn't configurable. You might even have thought
that it would become more configurable over time.

You were wrong. You were never the target audience.

I once had a infuriating (to me, at the time) argument with a Googler who was
responsible for an internal app which performed better in Firefox than in
Chrome. He said "Use Firefox!". I didn't get it at the time. He was a power
user, all his co-workers were power users, and thus the internal app was only
used by power users... They all used firefox! At least for real work...
(Pretty sure they all had Chrome on hand for Mail and Maps, etc...) Anyway,
the internal app correctly targeted firefox.

Meanwhile, back in time, when Chrome came out, Firefox started hemorrhaging
users. Mozilla reacted. Today, it's as fast or faster than Chrome for most
sites I use. _And it 's configurable!_

 _If you are reading this, and don 't have the latest beta or Nightly FF
installed, you should go do so now! Really, trying firefox after being away
from years will make you smile and renew your faith in humanity._ :)

But unfortunately, this story doesn't end there...

I think some firefox devs see Chrome as a rolemodel... Maybe they want to
compete with Google for those users who are not you! As a small example, I
offer this:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1118285](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1118285)
Note the posts that are marked "Comment hidden (advocacy)". You can click the
[+] to show what was hidden (comments from power users).

There are niche browsers for power users, and there are extensions... But
there isn't a mainstream browser for power users because power users aren't
mainstream.

I'm just describing the problem (well, I hope!), I'm sorry but I don't have a
solution.

------
mcrmonkey
ffs this is stupid. backspace has always been "back" in browsers and it really
vexes me when some versions of firefox on some linux distro's do this. two
hands have to be used to action this because the right alt key is either not
mapped ( on some os'es ) or is alt-gr. backspace works well when moving
quickly too - one finger from home row and bam.

Rather then this be the fix they should probably look at the bug thats causing
the user to go back when the form element is focused.

Whats next ? take away space bar for moving through the page ?

A about:config thing needs to be present for this to allow the user to switch
between what they want. Sure extentions are possible to fix this too but i
dont really want a 3rd party extention to re-enable whats a tried and tested
keyboard shortcut. Additionally what happens if that dev's account gets hacked
and the extention modded for malace ? Or if the dev pulls the thing in a way
similar to the node.js module issue a month or so ago.

This part is worrying though:

We have UseCounters showing that 0.04% of page views navigate back via the
backspace button and 0.005% of page views are after a form interaction.

Where is that data being gathered from and how?

Additionally what is classed as a form interaction ?

------
usaphp
I am glad they are making this change. I've lost my form data by accidentally
going back while trying to erase something in a text field so many times.

------
eropple
So I'm going to need another Chrome extension, further exacerbating the gong
show that is Chrome battery life, for something I use all the time.

Awesome.

------
YeGoblynQueenne
_We have UseCounters showing that 0.04% of page views navigate back via the
backspace button and 0.005% of page views are after a form interaction._

That's from the linked issue, the one that actually made the change.

So, um. What is "UseCounters"? Does this mean that when you're entering text
in a form Chrome is registering your keypresses?

------
lr
On OS X, Command-left bracket has worked on Chrome, Safari, Firefox (and
probably more) for years. Not sure about Windows or Linux, but keyboard
shortcuts are very well established across browsers in this way (like
Command-L, and all of the Emacs bindings like Control-A, Control-E, etc.).

------
math0ne
The amount of times I've accidentally navigated away from a form by hitting
that damn shortcut!

------
Kiro
As someone who constantly gets screwed by this: finally!

Example from literally one minute ago: a cool thing was going on in a Twitch
stream and I wanted to hype in the chat, misclicked the chat box so backspace
went back to the stream list instead making me miss the moment.

------
hnal943
This is one of the reasons I first moved away from internet explorer - this
seems to happen constantly on that browser. I've never had a problem on Chrome
or Netscape/FF, but I'm generally supportive of getting rid of this concept.

------
ogreveins
I would very much like them to revert this change. Using backspace to go back
has been in my browsing habits since I began using the internet. Atl+left or
right is annoying. Either give us a checkbox or revert it. Please. Pretty
please.

------
copperheart
Big thanks to the Chrome devs for this, I applaud and personally appreciate
the decision but wonder why a navigation shortcut like this couldn't be made
into an option for others to enable or disable based on their preference?

~~~
PunchTornado
so make it disabled by default, but keep it as an option for some users to
enable it.

how many users will go to enable it? very few. you shouldn't pollute the
settings page with rarely used customisations.

------
perezdev
>Are you suggesting that the only remaining options are Alt-Left (a two-hand
key combo for that I have to move my mouse hand towards the keyboard, and then
back)

I guess no one told this guy that a standard keyboard has two ALT keys.

~~~
vidarh
You are making assumptions that are invalid for a whole lot of keyboard
layouts.

~~~
perezdev
Must be why I said standard.

~~~
JdeBP
No, that would be because you didn't know what standard keyboard layouts are.

* CAN/CSA Z243.200-92 is a standard keyboard layout. One Alt modifier, one level 3 shift: [https://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/images/ti/clavier.gif](https://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/images/ti/clavier.gif)

* DIN 2137-1:2012-06 T3 is a standard keyboard layout. One Alt modifier, one level 3 shift: [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:German-T2-Keyboard-Proto...](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:German-T2-Keyboard-Prototype-May-2012.jpg)

* ABNT NBR 10346 2 is a standard keyboard layout. One Alt modifier, one level 3 shift: [http://www.windowsintegral.com/wp-content/uploads/Teclado_AB...](http://www.windowsintegral.com/wp-content/uploads/Teclado_ABNT21.jpg)

~~~
perezdev
You're taking what I said too literally. If you go to a store and buy an off
the shelf PC, a very common keyboard will come with it that has 2 ALTs.

~~~
vidarh
I've never lived anywhere where that'd be the case.

------
jijojv
Thank you. This is the right fix for 99% users who'd otherwise lose data

------
chrisdotcollins
Thank you so much for this. Accidental backspaces have been s o frustrating to
me at times. I'm glad sharing my telemetry was able to assist you in seeing
these problems.

I am looking forward to this update.

------
rocky1138
I don't mind removing backspace, but this better not remove the functionality
of my back button on my mouse. That's one of the worst things about having to
boot into OSX at work.

------
dghughes
Wouldn't it make more sense to have a pop up "Are you sure you want to
navigate away?" solution instead?

This is the very definition of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

------
SeriousM
"If you can fill out a formular field correctly without losing focus, you are
not part of Chrome's target audience.

edit: Had to type this four times due to accidently going back."

Made my day.

------
chrisdotcollins
Thank you so much for this. I have had this happen to me by accident so many
times.

I'm glad the sharing of telemetry pays off in features sometimes.

Looking forward to this update.

------
mixedCase
Why must every browser out there suck? Servo seems like the last hope if it
gets integrated into FF or a FF-like browser.

------
jordache
on the topic of annoying details that browser makers overlooks.

In safari, when opening a new tab, the focus is not on the address bar. I have
to always to Cmd+L before start typing. The address bar focus works when you
don't have a homepage defined (so a blank page), but who doesn't configure a
default home page? arrghh

------
XorNot
I'm surprised people think this is a bad idea? I know of no one who uses
backspace this way in the browser.

------
henvic
What the hell? Just ask the user if he intended to go backwards when there is
a form on focus or something.

------
backtoyoujim
I bet that eventually the "quit application" feature for Mac OS X is going to
be offshored.

------
lpsz
Sometimes, it's better without these features. E.g. on Mac, dragging left in
the browser is a gesture for going back to the previous page, and I can't
count how many times I've accidentally triggered that while filling out a web
form or interacting with a page. Isn't the back button and the keyboard
shortcut enough?

~~~
emodendroket
Ctrl + ← is fine too.

------
sammorrowdrums
Good riddance! This is such a terrible double-purpose binding. When bindings
seriously are common typing commands, that are not just bound, but bound in a
way that is often destructive, it just needs to die.

Anyone who thinks this shouldn't die is basically a bad person. It was an
affliction, and one of the poorest design choices in history. :-p

------
andrei_says_
It's the most frequently used key for me when I browse.

Any way to add it back? Maybe an extension?

------
dc2
I just hit backspace to go back to HN after reading this... and it didn't
work.

------
rietta
NOOO! That's how I go back! And use the space bar to scroll up and down!

------
jdhzzz
Thank you.

------
ryanlol
Because adding customizable keybinds is too difficult? Hell, if configs
looking scary to normal users is a problem why not just have a
json/sqlite/whatever file in the profile directory?

------
autoreleasepool
I can finally uninstall BackspaceMeansBackspace!

------
tehchromic
Hip hip hooray!!!

------
ravenstine
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

------
kruhft
Good, now I don't have to fix one of my sites to handle backspace 'properly'
that uses a custom keyboard handler for input. What a pain.

------
bluhue
Space-bar next!

------
MrBra
Is there a setting to re-enable it?

------
OJFord
Wahoo!

I've only ever done this by accident.

------
optimuspaul
finally, now maybe I can go back to Chrome.

------
homero
Finally

------
mdholloway
Thank god.

------
givinguflac
One more plus for Vivaldi.

------
dredmorbius
Google Chrome have fixed a longstanding UI/UX bug and state overload of the
Backspace key

Backspace key in Chrome browser no longer navigates backward, but instead is
limited to its initial and rightful role: deleting the previous character
under the pointer (mouse / text cursor).

I swear by His Noodliness I'd ranted on this at G+ some time, though
unfortunately since Microsoft Bing Search isn't available on Google+, I cannot
actually find shit in a useful fashion.

That said, I applaud this change, thumb my nose at the fuckwits who are
bitching about it, and note again the Flaw of Averages: One Size Fits None.

As to the justification of not relying on Backspace for Navigation

I ordinarily take exception to blame-the-user / taunt-the-user practices, and
should hasten to explain my own here.

Learning a New Backward Navigation Method is a Temporary Training
Inconvenience.

Repeatedly losing Vast Quantities of Newly Composed Content is an Irrevocable
User State Loss.

Among the canons of human-computer interface design is this: Thou shalt not
fuck with thine users' State.

Which by definition makes those who fail to make this distinction fuckwits.
Perhaps only ignorant fuckwits, a curable state, though quite possibly and
regrettably stupid fuckwits, a State of Extreme Durability in my experience.

The larger fault is arguably for the lack of a clear stateful separation of
editing from _ browsing_ modes in Web browsers. Editing involves creating
novel user state which can be easily lost through capricious client behavior,
such as, to draw on a randomly selected example, fucking overloading the
backspace key with the behavior of "delete my highly considered and Very
Important Message to the Univers by immediately and irrevocably moving off
this page.

It's with some irony that I note that console-based Web browsers rarely have
this problem. The w3m browser, for example, when editing a text field, dumps
the user to a local full-powered editor, and in fact defaults to that one
specified by the users environment ($VISUAL, $EDITOR, etc.). The result is
that a "primitive" browsing tool actually has an exceptionally powerful
editing environment.

(At this point, the Emacs users in the room are of course laughing and
pointing at me, but they in fact entirely substantiate my claim in doing so.
And, my dear good friends, I've given not inconsiderable thought to actually
joining you, as it seems that via Termux, a commandline environment for
Android, emacs and all its capabilities are in fact available to me, and may
vastly surpass the Android applications environment in capabilities. The fact
that Viper is a well-established and long-standing component of the Emacs
landscape means that the One True Operating System now does in fact have a
useful editor.)

Chrome has other utterly unredeemable failures on Android, including an utter
lack of ad-blocking capabilities. But for the task of composing and editing,
this is a nice touch.

But it does raise one futher point: why is editing via Web tools so abysmally
poor?

Despite various deficiencies, the G+ app actually does favourable compared to
a number of other platforms, and virtually all Web editable tools. Reddit and
Ello stand out particularly. As much as I love the Reddit Enhancement Suite
full-screen editor (it's a browser extension for Firefox and Chrome desktop),
it's not available on Android. Meaning I've got to jump through Multiple
Divers Hoops in order to compose long-form content on Reddit. Android's
various content-creation deficiencies make this a tedious process. This
accounts for some of my Diminished Output in recent months.

In particular, Firefox/Android has proven Exceptionally Capable at Losing My
Shit, at least in memory not exceptionally distant (considering I've owned my
present Samsung[tm] Infernal Device[r] only since October last), a
characteristic which makes me Exceptionally Leery of Embarking on Enterprises
of Extensive Prose Composition within that context.

Given the, shall we say, exceptional advancement of text-composition in other
contexts, I find this particular failure mode of the Browser Development
Community in General most unpardonable.

</rant_off>﻿

------
april1stislame
Never lost data on firefox by going forward after going back for accident
while writting on a form, but whatever... Google only wants dumb users who
can't see past what they're doing.

------
yAnonymous
I hope they also remove support for forward/back mouse buttons. I keep
accidently pressing those.

------
monochromatic
Morons don't know how to use our web browser? Better break it!

------
smegel
So it takes 51 versions before common sense kicks in?

Have a pat on the back.

------
imaginenore
Nooooooooo!

------
exabrial
THANK YOU!!!!!! Progress

------
soperj
And i'll never use chrome again.

------
kaonashi
Next up: remove form submit on return from textarea fields.

------
optforfon
Anyone want to place bets on how long till Firefox copies them?

~~~
kijin
When Firefox copies this "feature", at least there'll be an about:config
option to disable it.

~~~
qb45
In Firefox, backspace has defaulted to "scroll up" for years now and yes,
_browser.backspace_action_ in _about:config_ controls this.

~~~
kijin
My Firefox has _browser.backspace_action_ set to the default value (zero), and
it goes back to the previous page when I press the backspace key.

It's been less than 36 hours since I lost several hundred words of work
because of this, so I'm pretty sure the default behavior is "go back" as of
the latest stable version (46.0.1).

~~~
qb45
Maybe they switched it back at some time. I remember changing it from 1 or 2
to 0 on few installations.

~~~
kijin
It seems like 0 (go back) has always been the default on Windows builds. On
Linux it used to be 1 (scroll up) but they changed it to 2 (do nothing) in
2006.

[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.backspace_action](http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.backspace_action)

I made a half-assed attempt to migrate my Windows Firefox profile to Linux a
while ago, which probably explains why I'm seeing the Windows behavior on both
platforms :(

~~~
cpeterso
There was a Firefox patch posted just last week to make Linux's backspace key
behave like Windows and OS X:

[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=986982#c6](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=986982#c6)

------
alexc05
> "We're doing this via a flag so that we can control this behavior should
> there be sufficient outcry."

I love that they decided to do this. I think the justification for taking it
away is really good.

I also think that the decision to disable via "flag" shows some prescience
with respect to how the public reacts to things.

Great move and a template for "sound product development".

~~~
StyloBill
Yeah, except that they're not doing it this way.

>We ended up not having a flag for this. Even if we had it, it would only have
been in place for a single release.

~~~
alexc05
Oh! I didn't get that far. Thanks for pointing that out.

From a "best practices" point of view it was a good choice that they at least
started with a thought to potential customer reaction.

I do wish they'd left it in. Oh well.

Incidentally thanks for the comment as well, my post above has a few downvotes
and whenever that happens I always wonder "what I did wrong"

------
IvanK_net
I wanted to use Ctrl+N, Ctrl+O and Ctrl+T shortcuts in my webapp. I reported a
bug 3 years ago
[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=321810](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=321810)
which is not fixed yet, but they have "fixed" Backspace ... that seems crazy
to me.

~~~
qb45
And what's next to override, the power button? I wholly agree with this
WONTFIX.

~~~
fixermark
It makes it quite difficult to write a terminal emulator web app.

Chrome, at least, can resolve this issue by bundling up your web app as a
Chrome app; apps launched from the Chrome App Store can launch into a context
where the standard Chrome modifier keys aren't mapped.

~~~
emodendroket
Why don't you define an alternate button that acts like ctrl? It's the same as
how in Windows remote desktop you have to use ctrl-alt-end instead of ctrl-
alt-del because the software can't override the handling of that keypress

~~~
fixermark
Probably for similar reasons to the ones people have expressed in this thread
about not wanting to have to re-learn backspace. ;) Perfectly doable; doesn't
solve the problem of not mapping to what one is accustom to.

I'm an emacs user. If Ctrl-c does something different from starting a chord,
I'm gonna have a bad time.

~~~
emodendroket
I switched from using a Mac keyboard to using a Windows one when I was still a
heavy emacs user; I think you'll get adjusted much faster than you think.

