8 ms·

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

by stouset 10y ago

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 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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.
- HappyTypist 10y ago
  This can be done via an addon
meatcider 10y ago
> It's a hotkey that essentially no other software uses for the same behavior Except for Windows Explorer, but who uses that, eh? Your level of empathy is immaterial to the conversation, but thanks for sharing.
- stouset 10y ago
  Backspace on Windows Explorer goes up one directory, not back in your history. In a not-at-all shocking turn of events, it turns out Alt-Left and Alt-Right are in fact the hotkeys for navigating backward and forward through history, so Chrome aligns perfectly with Windows Explorer in this regard.
  - Arnavion 10y ago
    Umm, Backspace in Windows Explorer absolutely does go back in history, unless this changed in Windows 8+ or something (testing on Windows 7 here).
    - thaumasiotes 10y ago
      It goes back in history on windows 10 too. I never actually knew that, but hey. I definitely believe removing backspace-to-go-back in the browser is the right choice. I did know about that one, solely because every so often I do it by mistake. The problem isn't that I lose data -- I don't. The problem is that this shortcut does nothing but cause me problems I don't want. I never want the functionality, and yet it keeps happening to me anyway because it's so easy to trigger unintentionally. There's no case for this shortcut continuing to exist.
      - mrighele 10y ago
        Backspace used to go up one level up to Windows XP, if I remember correctly. Now you can go up one level with Alt+Up Arrow [1] [1] http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/keyboard-shortcuts#keyboard-shortcuts=windows-8 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/keyboard-shortcut...
    - 10y ago
smoothdeveloper 10y ago
alternatives: * alert if any form filled by user wasn't submitted (in case site doesn't do that already) * let 99% of user who don't know what they did (they are in minority compared to number of times backspace is pressed to actually navigate back) retype their form if they don't navigate forward (which recovers their input, or should) * add a third hand to human race so it doesn't take all the hands to navigate back from keyboard * lure lenovo to restore the back / forward keys on thinkpads and make that implemented on most keyboards
- Nexxxeh 10y ago
  >lure lenovo to restore the back / forward keys on thinkpads and make that implemented on most keyboards The number of times I've accidentally hit the back-a-page button on my old X201, and wiped my in-progress form entry... They smooshed those keys right around the arrow keys. The arrow keys I use to jumping around text. That's worse than having a dual-use for backspace to me. Backspace is far enough away that it's not hit by accident.
  - jamespo 10y ago
    Hitting them by accident is very rare for me - I love them on my x220, even more so when you can map them in emacs to switch buffer.
  - smoothdeveloper 10y ago
    You can hit the other "forward" key to recover everything in a good browser and/or websites which don't do silly things (99.99% of cases). It really feels chromium team should install telemetry: * how many unsubmitted forms edits lost by mistake * how many backspace keystroke to do "history-back" They should also consider alt-gr + left as "back-history", using two hands for this could be avoided this way.
    - saalweachter 10y ago
      Yes, because "Chrome phones home with all form data/keystrokes" wouldn't hit the top of HN.
code_sloth 10y ago
> ... 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. It's absolutely amazing how many comments (500++ as I write this) that this "news" generated.

by stouset 10y ago

ultramancool 10y ago

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 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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.
HappyTypist 10y ago
This can be done via an addon

meatcider 10y ago

> It's a hotkey that essentially no other software uses for the same behavior Except for Windows Explorer, but who uses that, eh? Your level of empathy is immaterial to the conversation, but thanks for sharing.

stouset 10y ago
Backspace on Windows Explorer goes up one directory, not back in your history. In a not-at-all shocking turn of events, it turns out Alt-Left and Alt-Right are in fact the hotkeys for navigating backward and forward through history, so Chrome aligns perfectly with Windows Explorer in this regard.
- Arnavion 10y ago
  Umm, Backspace in Windows Explorer absolutely does go back in history, unless this changed in Windows 8+ or something (testing on Windows 7 here).
  - thaumasiotes 10y ago
    It goes back in history on windows 10 too. I never actually knew that, but hey. I definitely believe removing backspace-to-go-back in the browser is the right choice. I did know about that one, solely because every so often I do it by mistake. The problem isn't that I lose data -- I don't. The problem is that this shortcut does nothing but cause me problems I don't want. I never want the functionality, and yet it keeps happening to me anyway because it's so easy to trigger unintentionally. There's no case for this shortcut continuing to exist.
    - mrighele 10y ago
      Backspace used to go up one level up to Windows XP, if I remember correctly. Now you can go up one level with Alt+Up Arrow [1] [1] http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/keyboard-shortcuts#keyboard-shortcuts=windows-8 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/keyboard-shortcut...
  - 10y ago

smoothdeveloper 10y ago

alternatives: * alert if any form filled by user wasn't submitted (in case site doesn't do that already) * let 99% of user who don't know what they did (they are in minority compared to number of times backspace is pressed to actually navigate back) retype their form if they don't navigate forward (which recovers their input, or should) * add a third hand to human race so it doesn't take all the hands to navigate back from keyboard * lure lenovo to restore the back / forward keys on thinkpads and make that implemented on most keyboards

Nexxxeh 10y ago
>lure lenovo to restore the back / forward keys on thinkpads and make that implemented on most keyboards The number of times I've accidentally hit the back-a-page button on my old X201, and wiped my in-progress form entry... They smooshed those keys right around the arrow keys. The arrow keys I use to jumping around text. That's worse than having a dual-use for backspace to me. Backspace is far enough away that it's not hit by accident.
- jamespo 10y ago
  Hitting them by accident is very rare for me - I love them on my x220, even more so when you can map them in emacs to switch buffer.
- smoothdeveloper 10y ago
  You can hit the other "forward" key to recover everything in a good browser and/or websites which don't do silly things (99.99% of cases). It really feels chromium team should install telemetry: * how many unsubmitted forms edits lost by mistake * how many backspace keystroke to do "history-back" They should also consider alt-gr + left as "back-history", using two hands for this could be avoided this way.
  - saalweachter 10y ago
    Yes, because "Chrome phones home with all form data/keystrokes" wouldn't hit the top of HN.

code_sloth 10y ago

> ... 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. It's absolutely amazing how many comments (500++ as I write this) that this "news" generated.