News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by rayiner on Thursday May 19, 2016 @08:43AM (#11729667)
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.

Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by jamespo on Thursday May 19, 2016 @08:47AM (#11729693)
Well apart from the millions of desktop PCs out there.

One thing I like about my venerable x220 is the dedicated forward & backward keys that can also be used to switch buffers in emacs etc.

Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by rayiner on Thursday May 19, 2016 @09:01AM (#11729786)
Even those often have a mouse with back and forward buttons.
Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by unlinker on Thursday May 19, 2016 @08:45AM (#11729680)
>everyone has a touchpad or touchscreen

No?

Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by stephenr on Thursday May 19, 2016 @08:52AM (#11729734)
> 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".

Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by kijin on Thursday May 19, 2016 @09:44AM (#11730094)
> 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.

Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by stephenr on Thursday May 19, 2016 @10:12AM (#11730307)
Safari added protection for 'unsaved forms' when closing a window/tab in v3, which was released about 9 years ago.
Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by fixermark on Thursday May 19, 2016 @11:52AM (#11731119)
Great. I'll get right on installing Safari on my Ubuntu machine.
Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by stephenr on Thursday May 19, 2016 @12:35PM (#11731437)
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.
Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by hussong on Thursday May 19, 2016 @02:07PM (#11732263)
Why swipe around when you could just press a button?
Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by danielweber on Thursday May 19, 2016 @07:41PM (#11734724)
> 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've never seen backspace act differently once I'd deleted everything. If a form field has focus -- even an empty form field -- backspace doesn't make me lose the page.

(On the other hand, I started this morning hating Chrome for getting rid of the functionality I've used since last century, but I'm now coming to accept it.)

Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by SilasX on Thursday May 19, 2016 @05:40PM (#11734092)
To this day, I still regularly copy posts to the clipboard before submitting them, because of all the times I've been burned hitting the wrong button and losing it. (Losing the post, not my sanity! Well, that too, actually.)
Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by EpicEng on Thursday May 19, 2016 @04:58PM (#11733781)
>It's especially pointless now that everyone has a touchpad or touchscreen and can swipe back and forth.

You live in your own little world, don't you?

Re:Chrome removes Backspace to go back by jhildings on Thursday May 19, 2016 @08:47AM (#11729695)
once a month is not that much...