Great news for Linux users, after months of testing, Mozilla released today a new package for Firefox on Linux (specifically on Ubuntu, Debian, and any Deb
Every browser I tried does that. They’d be inconsistent if adopting a different behavior.
Idk about others, but most times I click the address bar I want to either copy the address, change it entirely, or search for something. Selecting the entire text just makes sense, especially on mobile where selecting things sucks.
They all do it NOW. They did not always do it this way. Firefox is what I’ve always used, so I know they used to let the desktop handle how clicks were managed. Literally anything else on my desktop, if I click once it simply places the cursor where I clicked. And since I need to copy partial URLs multiple times a day, this change is something that constantly aggravates me. Now I have to click the address bar four times quickly in order for it to finally place the cursor where I’m clicking at. It’s not nitpicking if they intentionally changed an operation to no longer follow the rules of everything else on the desktop. Being inconsistent is not user-friendly.
Well, if they did it as you want it, a bunch of other people would complain they’re inconsistent because they’re the only browser that does that (today).
And what’s “everything else on the desktop”? I’m struggling to find more examples other than browsers and file managers. And a few popular file managers don’t even have editable text path inputs enabled by default, so you can’t even say this is a “rule”.
Open any document. Single click somewhere within that document. What do you expect to happen? Do you expect your cursor to be placed where you clicked, or do you expect the entire line to be highlighted? My guess is that you expect consistency in every application doing the same thing for a single click.
Just because one browser decided to change how they react, and everybody else copied that behavior, does not mean it is the correct or expected behavior. You’ve just gotten used to the difference that was forced on you, but imagine if every application on your desktop reacted differently depending on how many times you clicked a spot? What happens when they also start modifying the results of a right-click into something unexpected like clearing your cookies? Is that also OK just because one browser started doing it and every other browser copied that function?
The problem is you’re expecting consistency between elements that should not have consistent behavior for having completely different functions.
A line of text in a PDF, in a WYSIWYG editor, text in UI labels, and text in an address bar all have different roles and should be expected to behave differently, idk why you’re surprised for this “inconsistency”.
A single line text field in any interface doesn’t behave the same way as the single line text field in the address bar. It certainly does break conventions.
Maybe because it WAS consistent until the FF devs made the choice to change it? As I said before, if they decided to change the role of the right-click to no longer bring up a context menu, would you be ok with that as well? What about the difference between clicking on text in a browser article or clicking into a textarea? Those also have different roles, so if the devs decide that a user single-clicking into the textarea should automatically select the entire field, would that make sense to you? If I click on any text anywhere in any application, I expect to get the same results, and not have to remember how every application handles that click differently. Sure if I was clicking on something other than text then different actions might make sense in different applications, but the idea of a single click on the address bar selecting everything is akin to clicking an icon on my desktop and having all the surrounding icons also getting selected – it just doesn’t make sense and it’s not consistent with a single click in any other application.
So it’s ok that it works for your use-case and screw consistency? My point is that if you say it’s ok for one application to do things their own way, it basically invites every other app developer to ignore the standards and just do whatever they want. And no, single-click selecting the entire URL shouldn’t be considered a standard, it’s just something that changed in the last few years when one browser made the call and everyone else played follow-the-leader.
By the way, you mentioned that “all” of your browsers behave the same way . I’d like to remind you that Chrome, Chromium, and Safari all use the same engine so they’re basically the same thing. I think Opera stands alone but I don’t have that installed here so I can’t check it immediately. I’d ask if anyone had checked Exploder, but who in their right mind uses that except for work-related stuff where their developers can’t write HTML, and Microsoft is probably the ones who started this mess anything since they’re well know for ignoring standards. That really only leaves four unique browsers though. Not saying you didn’t consider this already, I just wanted to point it out in case you hadn’t.
If you want an example similar to an address bar, how about the current path in any file manager – I have Caja, Dolphin, and something called PCManFM here (not sure where that came from)? Once again, a single click does not select the entire path, it just places the cursor exactly where you clicked and nothing is selected. I can’t think of any other types of applications where you have some kind of a navigation bar, but that’s the closest example I know.
imagine if every application on your desktop reacted differently depending on how many times you clicked a spot
yeah, wow, imagine. different applications using different design patterns for different contexts. perish the thought!
Is that also OK just because one browser started doing it and every other browser copied that function?
one browser did an arguably useful thing, every other browser agreed it was arguably useful, and it became a widely adopted feature? sounds ok to me. gee, it’s almost like this is how standard patterns come to be, or something…
If you hold down the mouse button while hovering over the address bar, that starts selecting stuff. Is there a reason your usecase isn’t covered by this?
wtf is this nitpicking
Every browser I tried does that. They’d be inconsistent if adopting a different behavior.
Idk about others, but most times I click the address bar I want to either copy the address, change it entirely, or search for something. Selecting the entire text just makes sense, especially on mobile where selecting things sucks.
They all do it NOW. They did not always do it this way. Firefox is what I’ve always used, so I know they used to let the desktop handle how clicks were managed. Literally anything else on my desktop, if I click once it simply places the cursor where I clicked. And since I need to copy partial URLs multiple times a day, this change is something that constantly aggravates me. Now I have to click the address bar four times quickly in order for it to finally place the cursor where I’m clicking at. It’s not nitpicking if they intentionally changed an operation to no longer follow the rules of everything else on the desktop. Being inconsistent is not user-friendly.
Well, if they did it as you want it, a bunch of other people would complain they’re inconsistent because they’re the only browser that does that (today).
And what’s “everything else on the desktop”? I’m struggling to find more examples other than browsers and file managers. And a few popular file managers don’t even have editable text path inputs enabled by default, so you can’t even say this is a “rule”.
Open any document. Single click somewhere within that document. What do you expect to happen? Do you expect your cursor to be placed where you clicked, or do you expect the entire line to be highlighted? My guess is that you expect consistency in every application doing the same thing for a single click.
Just because one browser decided to change how they react, and everybody else copied that behavior, does not mean it is the correct or expected behavior. You’ve just gotten used to the difference that was forced on you, but imagine if every application on your desktop reacted differently depending on how many times you clicked a spot? What happens when they also start modifying the results of a right-click into something unexpected like clearing your cookies? Is that also OK just because one browser started doing it and every other browser copied that function?
The problem is you’re expecting consistency between elements that should not have consistent behavior for having completely different functions.
A line of text in a PDF, in a WYSIWYG editor, text in UI labels, and text in an address bar all have different roles and should be expected to behave differently, idk why you’re surprised for this “inconsistency”.
A single line text field in any interface doesn’t behave the same way as the single line text field in the address bar. It certainly does break conventions.
Maybe because it WAS consistent until the FF devs made the choice to change it? As I said before, if they decided to change the role of the right-click to no longer bring up a context menu, would you be ok with that as well? What about the difference between clicking on text in a browser article or clicking into a textarea? Those also have different roles, so if the devs decide that a user single-clicking into the textarea should automatically select the entire field, would that make sense to you? If I click on any text anywhere in any application, I expect to get the same results, and not have to remember how every application handles that click differently. Sure if I was clicking on something other than text then different actions might make sense in different applications, but the idea of a single click on the address bar selecting everything is akin to clicking an icon on my desktop and having all the surrounding icons also getting selected – it just doesn’t make sense and it’s not consistent with a single click in any other application.
Selecting the address with a single click does make sense for the reasons I listed in my first comment.
And it’s consistent across most applications that have an address bar nowadays.
It doesn’t need to be consistent with other kinds of text fields because that wouldn’t make sense.
So it’s ok that it works for your use-case and screw consistency? My point is that if you say it’s ok for one application to do things their own way, it basically invites every other app developer to ignore the standards and just do whatever they want. And no, single-click selecting the entire URL shouldn’t be considered a standard, it’s just something that changed in the last few years when one browser made the call and everyone else played follow-the-leader.
By the way, you mentioned that “all” of your browsers behave the same way . I’d like to remind you that Chrome, Chromium, and Safari all use the same engine so they’re basically the same thing. I think Opera stands alone but I don’t have that installed here so I can’t check it immediately. I’d ask if anyone had checked Exploder, but who in their right mind uses that except for work-related stuff where their developers can’t write HTML, and Microsoft is probably the ones who started this mess anything since they’re well know for ignoring standards. That really only leaves four unique browsers though. Not saying you didn’t consider this already, I just wanted to point it out in case you hadn’t.
If you want an example similar to an address bar, how about the current path in any file manager – I have Caja, Dolphin, and something called PCManFM here (not sure where that came from)? Once again, a single click does not select the entire path, it just places the cursor exactly where you clicked and nothing is selected. I can’t think of any other types of applications where you have some kind of a navigation bar, but that’s the closest example I know.
Just want to say this has been a rollercoaster to read @[email protected] and @[email protected]. That is all.
yeah, wow, imagine. different applications using different design patterns for different contexts. perish the thought!
one browser did an arguably useful thing, every other browser agreed it was arguably useful, and it became a widely adopted feature? sounds ok to me. gee, it’s almost like this is how standard patterns come to be, or something…
If you hold down the mouse button while hovering over the address bar, that starts selecting stuff. Is there a reason your usecase isn’t covered by this?
It certainly helps, that was already mentioned by someone else and wasn’t an option I was aware of.
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Maybe on mobile, I’ll give that the benefit of the doubt. But doing it in desktop is just ridiculous and annoying as hell.
I’d be more annoyed to have to click it 2 or 3 times in order to search for something.