Slashdot Mirror
Google Chrome To Disallow Backspace As a 'Back' Button (independent.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: Google Chrome is going to stop people from accidentally deleting everything they've been doing. A future version of the app will stop the backspace button from also functioning as a "back" button. The change has already been rolled out in some experimental versions of the app, and has upset some users. Developers have said that the feature is only being partly enabled for now, in case there is "sufficient outcry" and it needs to be rolled back. People regularly press the button thinking that they're deleting a word from a form, developers said, but then find that they weren't actually typing into that form and so accidentally go back, losing everything they've done.
Default behaviour should be backspace does NOT take you back a page. Leave a setting somewhere obvious to turn that particular function on again. Was that so hard?
For all the pain this has called me, I'm glad our national nightmare is finally over!
And if there is a form element with text in it that did not exist on page load, show an alert window on backspace outside of that textarea or input element and ask if the user is sure they want to go back a page because there is an element with user inputted text.
Seems pretty simple, they must be on something.
You do know that app is short for application, and the abbreviated version has been used since the early 90s (probably before too). If you don't believe me, do a search and you will see old computer magazines referring to programs as "apps"
Backstop, nuff said: https://chrome.google.com/webs...
good? i guess.
It took this many years until one browser vendor has noticed this usability problem? I have lost uncountable forms to this stupid feature. It works especially best when you are in a hurry or tired.
Make it an option (buried in the config) for those who want it, and turn it off by default.
17779 eligible voters in a district, 17779 'vote' as one. This is Russia.
Firefox will ask you whether you want to leave a page before going back if there's data entered on the page. Chrome should implement something similar.
I would have gotten first post but I hit the backspace
I am a figment of my own imagination.
Yes, those Republicans and their constant drive to change things and break with tradition. Oh wait that's exactly the opposite of a typical Republican perspective. If you Americans have to crap on every discussion with this boring local politics, at least get your stupid stereotypes the right way (pun!).
Anyway, I have never purposefully hit backspace intending to page back (I use gestures or click the back button). I have accidentally lost stuff by hitting backspace (especially in "pseudo-textbox" type fancy input controls where the focus is not always clear). I'm sure there's people who won't like it, but I think it's a good change for most users.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Why not fix the actual problem of the forward button not returning them to the page with all of their work in tact?
Fucking idiot web browser developers. Can't think outside of the box about anything. It's always been a certain way, and so that's how it's supposed to be in their minds.
This one actually seems like a good design decision.
On pc the backspace and delete buttons both exist and they work exactly as they should. Darned if I care what apple does.
On chrome I also see back, forward and refresh/stop just fine.
However the problem with backspace going back is that if you are typing in a textarea and you hit backspace it deletes your text (which is what you want). However if you tab to another control that is not text editable and you hit backspace you have now gone back a page and lost what you where entering. It violates all kinds of UI principles.
Backspace to go back is just a bad UI and fixing it should definitely be done. There is no dumbing down involved.
Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD!
LMAO, I really hope this is satire! XD
My laptop has at almost all of the keys. Your problem is just that you got a Macbook
If we start ignoring all of our constitutional rights because of terrorism, then what are we fighting for at that point?
I support this change. I've had multiple instances over the years where I'm filling out a complicated form, try to erase a couple characters by hitting the backspace key, and found myself going to previous pages and wiping out the work that I'd done. Honestly, I don't use the "Back" button enough to need a shortcut.
Now if only Macs would stop using the two-finger trackpad swipe gesture as a shortcut for back/forward buttons. I know you can turn it off (and I do on any Mac I sit down at), but the two-finger swipe is already used for scrolling, and it's a stupid move to have the same gesture do two different things in the same app.
App as a shorthand for application has been in use for over 30 years.
alt + left arrow or right arrow are equivalent to the back and forward buttons. I know, I know, two buttons at once is sooooo hard, but you'll manage.
For the remaining billions of us who've lost countless hours of typing due to this stupid "feature", Hooray!
Sure, but it's tainted nowadays.
If I recall correctly, the Old (Presto) Opera had the correct way to manage this: If a person pressed back and then went Forward, ALL the data of the page forms was there again. It is such a pity, that there are no decent browsers since its collapse!
In general, I still see both buttons on Windows laptops.. Also, my Macbook, at least, DOES have a fn key, and when I press fn+delete, it functions like a delete button, not like backspace. So yes, maybe they did remove the key to create a smaller keyboard to fit the laptop, but in many cases, they managed to keep the functionality of those excised keys, in exactly the manner you suggest. Even if that functionality is not immediately obvious and you might have to RTFM--or at the very least, do a little futzing around--to figure out it's there.
No! I use that feature all the time. Together with vimium, it allows me to navigate while keeping my hands on the keyboard without having to reach for my mouse all the time.
I know alt+left arrow works too, but a chorded keyboard shortcut is a lot less convenient, and I'd still have to move my hand to the arrow cluster instead of staying close to home row.
Nope! This is a site-specific feature, implemented in the code of the web page. It's not a feature in Firefox.
I'm using Firefox right now, and I just double-checked.
it does on mine
This is sort of weird. As a long time Opera user I never had a problem accidentally leaving the page. My browser always remembered what I'd typed and going forward again to the form page would have all my content as I'd left it.
IMO the problem isn't the backspace key, it's unfriendly browsers.
This isn't a dumb user issue, rather it's a usability issue. I'd say that I am a pretty advanced user, but even I end up accidentally hitting backspace without focus on the right textbox, thus losing everything that I typed.
Backspace has always been a dumb key to use as "Back" beyond its name.
There is a Firefox ticket requesting a feature like the parent poster mentioned. It's only been open since the year 2000.
Since a website can tell the browser to pop a dialog asking the user to confirm before they leave, maybe that explains the low priority.
Disable the damn ESC key from doing anything as well. That has bitten me more than the Backspace key...
Just save the contents and put them back if the user presses forward. I thought only Firefox devs were a waste of oxygen, but it seems they were merely copying Chrome devs.
There are two problems with this.
Ultimately, there are several other keyboard shortcuts for backwards navigation. It's not ideal that a small number of users will have to learn that instead of backspace they now have to press ALT-LEFT, but they'll learn. Just as they learned that CTRL-Q doesn't work, but SHIFT-CTRL-Q does. I bet, after a week, most people won't even notice any more.
Speaking of which, I never cared for the way the tab key is overloaded and prevents you from typing an actual tab into the text field. Same with the Enter key that sometimes submits the form (or goes to the next line in Excel) so you have to use Ctrl-Enter to enter an actual enter. We need new buttons for Next/Previous Field, and Submit.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
I thought today's browser automatically remembered the contents of the text fields if you hit back and then go forward again (using the forward button, not clicking the link again)??
I mean, IE and FireFox remember the contents of text fields if I hit back (or backspace) and it goes back a page. Hit forward and boom, text I entered is still there.
Granted, it's not a behaviour that works 100% because of the way some websites work (especially rich text fields), but it seems to work fairly well..
Doesn't Chrome remember it?
The problem is mostly about typing into text box, when mouse-clicking outside the box is sometimes useful. I personally complained about the problem roughly three years ago, and am glad someone finally is deciding to do something about it.
For example, RISC OS has an !Apps directory since the 90s.
Perl Programmer for hire
The physical tab key has meant "move the output location to the next field" for a hundred years or so. The idea of a "literal tab character" was always goofy - an ASCII legacy like form-feed, bell, ENQ etc. I don't want to tab key to type an actual 0x09 character any more than I want the PageDown key to type an actual 0x0C character, or the backspace key to type an actual 0x08 character.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I'm laying the blame at Microsoft's door. They also decided that the Enter key should submit a form as apparently tabbing to the submit button and *then* pressing Enter was really hard for the retards in the focus group. This causes even more issues than backspace as it is easy to have a partially completed form submitting when you didn't expect it to because (again) you weren't in a form input. Then the site grumbles at you for not filling in all the required fields...
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
With Internet and browsers dominating existence, keyboards should be redesigned with common browser clickies built in and separate from editing keys.
Apropos of the subject, Chromebooks do exactly that. Who needs those function keys anyway?
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Right, so then they can deal with the cries of horror as people discover that Chrome is saving what they enter in forms? That is not the browser's job, it is the page's (and server-side session's) job. It's easy to recognize people who have never built a UI before - whatever they personally want is so obviously the right thing to do and those developers just such idiots for not doing exactly what you want all the time.
Yup, just disabled it in Vivaldi and (old) opera, thanks Chrome for reminding me to turn that awful binding off. There's already much better binding for that (usually mouse gestures for me) but you can configure them like you want in any sane browser.
Well, no, that's not why that's there. The reason 'flags' exists is because chrome doesn't branch. Any features that are in development go right in the main branch, so there's no costly merging. It has basically nothing to do with UI concerns; it's a result of the dev process.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
I call bullshit. I have lost many FogBugz responses over the years because Firefox inexplicably decided that a Backspace keystroke in a case edit should be interpreted as a 'Previous page' command instead of deleting the previous character. When dealing with longer responses we now tend to write them in Atom, Notepad, etc. and copy-paste the final output into FogBugz so as to avoid the pain.
Relevant bug
Keep your barren hellscape of a keyboard away from my development work. Backspace and Delete are not the same thing. Home and End are indispensable. Modifiers don't help, because Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End are also indispensable, as are Ctrl+Shit+Home and Ctrl+Shit+End. Every time I have to pick the mouse up precious sub-threads of my train of thought are at risk. I would happily give up my Insert key, but I'm sure there is somebody who is editing hex in a monospace text editor who would sooner gut you than give theirs up.
Hey, Google, if your real motive here is truly to "save the (form) data", why not buy or license the use of the Lazarus extension's codebase and simply incorporate that into Chrome? Then you could leave our fucking backspace key mapped the way it's always been since 1995. The Lazarus extension for Firefox has been effectively negating that disaster for years now.
I've hated backspace as a navigation option as well as space bar as page down. I have a page down button, I don't need the space bar to do it too. Use case, my toddler is perfectly happy to let me read the internet, so long as she can bang away on the biggest key on the keyboard (the space bar).
There is an option for this in Firefox, although it is hidden in about:config
browser.backspace_action :
0 : go back one page (the default on Windows)
1 : scroll up (the default on linux before 2006-12-07)
2 : do nothing (the default on linux after 2006-12-07)
I like by backspace binding so on linux I change this. This should be the same for Chrome.
I don't remember losing form data because of this. The biggest cause of losing data is failed submissions (connection problem, website error, session expired, ...). In case it happens I have Lazarus which saved the day a couple of times. Instead of changing keybindings people are used to, form backup is what Chrome should do, so that you don't lose your data no matter what.
https://xkcd.com/1172/
"Is that dad? Either that or Batman's really let himself go."
.. while they're at it. Worst key combo ever. Hit it all the time. Don't try this at home.
Yeah, but only cos the ADFS limit was ten characters!
How about saving the state before going back for any reason. Then the forward button can reload the state and you don't have to re-type anything.
That way, if any of the several other ways you might accidentally go back are also covered.
An app (application) is a program that either does something useful or lets you do something useful with it. Are utilities applications? Are media players? Are games?
." make me want to shoot them.
I've been using computers since the early 70s and I've never called a computer program an app. I never heard the word until smart phones were invented. Maybe some people used it, but I bet they were in the minority.
Quite a few apps for phones are nothing more than a custom interface to a server. I have one on my phone that simply opens the browser to the mobile version of the website! That's what I'd call a link, not an app.
When I hear people who can barely turn on a computer using words like "app" or "hashtag", it really gets on my nerves. "Let me pull that up on my browser" is another phrase that I cannot stand. And advertisers who say, "Log onto our website . .
End of rant . . . . . for now.
This is not a problem and it does not violate any "UI principles".
When you are editing text, backspace edits text.
When you are not editing text, backspace takes you back.
Are you going to claim that hitting U a time or two to get to "United States" on a drop down is violating "UI principles" because it behaves differently from hitting U in a text field?
I'm laying the blame at Microsoft's door. They also decided that the Enter key should submit a form as apparently tabbing to the submit button and *then* pressing Enter was really hard for the retards in the focus group. This causes even more issues than backspace as it is easy to have a partially completed form submitting when you didn't expect it to because (again) you weren't in a form input. Then the site grumbles at you for not filling in all the required fields...
Why in the hell would you hit Enter when you're not in a text field? Do you just randomly paw at the keys?
CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL
Control got me out of this jam. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Thats the thing though, language changes, some things become more wide spread and some fade away. For example, I used to call programs "progs" and pirated software "warez", because that was a common way of saying it back then, especially during the AOL warez days. Now I never hear that term being used now, but i'm sure some people do.
Be usable by keyboard and mouse -- increasingly gone in many programs, especially frequently updated ones desperately trying to be hip
At least with backspace no longer going Back, Alt+Left will probably still go Back. And for all it apes Chrome, Firefox still has a traditional menu bar that you can show with the Alt key.
Then a web form could use JavaScript to remap Enter to act like Tab unless either A. Ctrl+Enter was pressed, or B. one of the call-to-action buttons at the end of the form is focused. Would this be enough?
Why not just delete the delete button from the keyboard? Many other 'meta-keys' have disappeared in order to dumb-down the keyboard. Keyboards used to have both backspace and delete, which did two slightly different things. Now my Macbook pro only has a delete button that acts like backspace (not delete), no home/end keys, and all sorts of other missing keys. So, just fucking delete the delete button too. Just like the 'Forward' and 'Refresh' buttons in Firefox. Dumb everything down for the people who do nothing but watch videos on their computers. And before you say, 'Those keys were removed to keep the keyboards small for smaller laptops'... ever hear of modifier keys like fcn, control, alt?
I'm not entirely sure I'm reading your message correctly, but on an Apple keyboard:
Fn+Up = Page Up
Fn+Down = Page Down
Fn+Backspace (labeled as "delete") = Del
Fn+Left arrow = Home
Fn+Right arrow = End
Fn+Enter = Return (is it vice versa??)
Fn+Esc = Break
And just some other useful:
Option+Up = cursor to beginning of line, or if at beginning of line, up one line
Option+Down = cursor to end of line, or if at end of line, down one line
Option+Left arrow = move cursor left one word
Option+Right arrow = move cursor right one word
If you're new to Mac OS, shortcut keys and modifier keys are really big. Try dragging with various modifier keys, clicking on the desktop with various modifier keys (e.g. Option+Click on desktop hides the current active program windows, same as Cmd+H), check out Application and system menus while holding down Option, etc.
The physical tab key has meant "move the output location to the next field" for a hundred years or so. The idea of a "literal tab character" was always goofy - an ASCII legacy like form-feed, bell, ENQ etc. I don't want to tab key to type an actual 0x09 character any more than I want the PageDown key to type an actual 0x0C character, or the backspace key to type an actual 0x08 character.
I'm not sure that's quite right.
The origin of tab keys is from typewriters where there were physical gears that controlled where the carriage stopped. When you pressed tab, the carriage would be moved to the next tab stop (wherever you set that). Tab is short for "tabulate" because this functionality was primarily useful for tabular data--columns of numbers, etc.
So, similar in concept to "next field" but different too.
Me, I like tabs.
Then it becomes a nuisance for read-only pages where fast key navigation is very useful.
Alt+Left, Alt+Right
it is the form developer's fault for not building a navigation confirmation into their page
With JavaScript, one can add a listener for the beforeunload event. But a lot of pop-up ads have abused onbeforeunload to add an "are you sure you want to close this ad?" alert. Besides, how should a form developer do this in an environment where JavaScript is blocked, such as NoScript, LibreJS, tracking blockers that mistakenly block the CDN hosting a script, or a corporate MITM proxy put in place "to block ransomware". That's why some Slashdot users have recommended using the heuristic of a text input or text area that the user has modified as a proxy for there being substantial unsaved changes.
When you are editing text, backspace edits text.
When you are not editing text, backspace takes you back.
Accidentally touching your laptop's trackpad with your palm can change the input state from "editing text" to "not editing text". So add a third line:
When you are editing text, but you accidentally touch part of your computer wrong, backspace takes you back.
Modifiers don't help, because Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End are also indispensable, as are Ctrl+Shit+Home and Ctrl+Shit+End.
Is your keyboard a piece of "Shit"?
Seriously, a compact keyboard might map Home and End to Fn+Left and Fn+Right. Then Ctrl+Home, Ctrl+End, Ctrl+Shift+Home, Ctrl+Shift+End would become Ctrl+Fn+Home, Ctrl+Fn+End, Ctrl+Shift+Fn+Home, and Ctrl+Shift+Fn+End. And if you aim your left pinky well, you can hit all three modifiers (Ctrl+Shift+Fn).
How do they study this? The key does not get sent to the website, rather it's interpreted by the browser. Does Chrome do key logging?
But still the point stands, it was common in the 80s and 90s: http://www.osnews.com/story/24...
I guess the AC's lawn belongs to his parents ;-)
Perl Programmer for hire
You must be a very slow typist if you take time to check, before each press of backspace, whether or not your palm has since contacted your laptop's trackpad to cause a click event that changes the focus.
In Firefox 46, forms that are part of the initial HTML document get restored properly, but forms created through scripted manipulation of the DOM, such as Slashdot's current reply form, usually don't. A workaround on Slashdot is to use the old reply form, which I can access by middle-clicking "Reply to This" or by right-clicking it and choosing "Open Link in New Tab".
Cool story, gramps. People have been calling applications "apps" since at least the mid 1980s. "Killer app" is, for example, a pretty old turn of phrase.
How does the page save the state if the user or the user's network is blocking non-free script as a security measure to stop the spread of ransomware?
If you are in a text box, the application may take "Enter" as a carriage return or Submit, and you won't know until you try it.
As for why, when I flip to another application, then come back, I'll focus on where I was, not whether I have clicked in the correct text box again. Especially when copy-pasting lots, you'll end up changing application quite frequently, and you may not be in a text field when you think you are.
Learn to love Alaska
typing "u" in a pull down or text box is a zero-loss event. If you type "USA" at a country pull down and end up selecting antigua, it is trivial to try again. If you hit backspace and go back a page, you have lost data. That's not a trivial error on the part of the program.
Learn to love Alaska
You'll notice I said "next output location", not "next field". The two can be the same for tables. But for the past 50 years, sure, it's been more about "next field", as you could send "forms" to high-end printers, then send the form data for each page using tabs to move from location to location (ever wonder why ASCII has both horizontal and vertical tabs?). The whole 0x08-0x0C range were commands to position the print head.
Tab should never have been a display character, but someone once got "clever" with implied tab locations on screens, and the rest is legacy.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
If (cursor = in text field) { backspace text } Else { Go Back one page } EOF
So that is where you put the things that were not apps?
And then they rediscover pull-to-refresh is still there.
They obviously forgot to study the entire class such as pull-to-refresh.
You'll notice I said "next output location", not "next field".
Pedantically, you said:
The physical tab key has meant "move the output location to the next field" for a hundred years or so.
But that's ok, I get where you're coming from. Also, some interesting info on Wikipedia.
Why are you so insistent on ad hominem attacks?
You are entirely right that the Enter key also changes behavior on a page based on context and that is also a very bad design.
It frustrates me to see people defending bad UI design as somehow better and fixing it as dumbing down. You certainly can dumb down interfaces but this case has nothing to do with that. This is just taking a button that does two different things transparently and destructively and changing that so it does not do the destructive behavior. Enter is the same way and should also be fixed.
Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD!
Not when every select element has javascript bound to it that changes other shit on the page.
Get real. You can't logically fight against backspace doing different things in different contexts without also fighting against just about every other damned key on the keyboard.
For any given application it's consistent, including your web browser. Learn to use your tools.
Some shitty sites may behave differently by hijacking your keypresses, but that's just another reason to disable javascript trash by default. Same goes for shitty sites that hijack the context menu (right click).
You're literally complaining about trying to input data after switching contexts without checking to see what context you've switched to.
one finger backspace + porn = leaves the other hand free
I was under the impression that this had little to do with the browser and more to do with how someone programmed the site. I see this behaviour quite inconsistently across both web forms and dodgy pop-up advertising that sneaks through the adblocker.
Please stop fixing problems for the few, at the expense of pretty much everybody else. This is a problem you find repeatedly in pretty much all big name software today.
Another good fix would be to have a “forward” button that returns them to the page they were on with everything intact.
Although to be honest, I’ve always thought that backspace was a stupid hotkey for “back.” It never worked consistently in any browser I’ve ever used, so I never got into the habit of using it.
I hated it on MSIE and I hate it everywhere where I encounter it.
Firefox is nice: typing something on a form and the backspace functionality is disabled.
Still I would like it to not even exist.
Why not ctrl-left oder something similar?
Atari rules... ermm... ruled.
I was under the impression that this had little to do with the browser and more to do with how someone programmed the site. I see this behaviour quite inconsistently across both web forms and dodgy pop-up advertising that sneaks through the adblocker.
Perhaps the web sites that fuck with the focus of your cursor should be the ones you are mad at? Grabbing focus with a large shadowbox and a nag form about a spammy email newsletter is the problem, not the browser.
I like the shortcut, but I agree that some forms don't play nice with it and it is easy to accidentally flip back when you don't want to. Instead of stripping the feature, they should instead make it harder to accidentally trigger - something like ctrl+backspace.
That is not an ad hominem, just calling someone a name.
But thanks to this feature, I don't have to press any webpage buttons when I search using google or bing. I just type the search expression in the textbox and hit the Enter key -- quick and efficient.
All hail to the ALT Left/Right arrows!
I am very excited about this announcement both because whoever came up with the original design "feature" was a horrible human being and deserves to fry in the afterlife, but also because it proves that i do not actually hate all change! Some change is good!
Now if you'll excuse me, i need to get back my losing fight to keep using the Classic/XP Windows UI, menu bars instead of ribbons, and the KitKat Google UI.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I have your red swingline stapler. If you give me your address I'll mail it back to you. Please don't burn down my house.
Because it makes you butthurt?
Yeah the war was lost by around 1985.
I often include code snippets or shell text in my emails, which I can format as Fixed Space (only one fixed space font, thanks Google), but there is no way I can tell in the web interface of GMail to insert tabs into email text to column align data. (Tab being used to navigate, not enter text).
How hard is to make TAB work like normal tab when inside a text entry box, or just be able to assign some other key sequence to tab (ctl+tab) or something and leave tab for what it was intended to do?
I have heard the old ALT+NUM_KEY pad works to insert a tab character, but that's a hack and useless for me anyway, since I primarily use a tenkeyless keyboard.
If there is a way, someone please enlighten me. Whenever I want to send a technical email, I compose it first in VIM and then I have to use copy/paste in Gmail. How they can't fix this oversight after years of being requested in the forums is beyond me.
I can reach right Alt with my right thumb and Left and Right with my right pinky. It's easy on a laptop, where the arrow keys are up under the right Shift key. I admit it's a stretch on a full-size desktop keyboard, but a desktop keyboard is more likely to have dedicated "multimedia keys" for Back and Forward. Or do browsers used with European keyboards map AltGr in such a way that AltGr+Left and AltGr+Right do not go back and forward?
You don't get to complain about time lost inputting data when you chose a fucking laptop keyboard and trackpad to input that data.
I chose a laptop because choosing otherwise would have resulted in not inputting data at all while I wait to arrive at a desk. Not all work situations in which one is expected to input data provide a desk on which to set a separate keyboard and mouse. Using a laptop while a passenger on a bus, train, or airplane is an example.
So you're back to square one then with a stupid UI choice (button used when filling in the form can direct a browser away from a page) and resorting to nagware with users? Because we all know how well nagware works.
No I'm well and truly mad at whoever thought there needs to be more than one back button on the keyboard, and whoever decided to make that a common non-escaped typing character. It was an abortion of a choice from the very beginning.
HTML5 local storage? I'm not sure what 'non-free' script means, but I'm pretty sure it does not preclude all use of HTML5 features, particularly this one designed for this exact purpose.
The real problem isn't that "go back" loses your work.
The real problem is that "Go forward" doesn't take you back where you were.
Where I was is a state, not a URL.
I don't want the URL reloaded, I want the state of the page restored.
I'll assure you, I did teabag it.
Somebody needs to lookup the definition of ad-hominem.
How does the page save the state
HTML5 local storage?
Local storage requires JavaScript. Users can block JavaScript from running, and proxies running on corporate networks can block JavaScript files from being retrieved.
I'm not sure what 'non-free' script means
The Free Software Foundation has released a browser extension called LibreJS that causes JavaScript not to run at all unless it can be identified as having been released under a free software license. But because you weren't aware of it, I'll try again with a related question:
How does the page save the state if the user or the user's network is blocking JavaScript as a security measure?
No, a directory starting with a ! is "magic". It could contain a !boot file (what to do when the filer sees the directory for the first time), a !run file (what to do when the directory is double clicked), a !sprites file (containing the icons, which can also used for the directory itself). See http://www.guidebookgallery.or... for an example.
Perl Programmer for hire
opera had back and forward buttons, which just switch the whole site including state, instead of reloading the previous/next page.
So, wait. Let me get this straight. People are typing into a form, hit back space, thinking it will delete a character and instead it goes to the previous page and you loose everything you typed into the form? How about cacheing that text in the form the you go back a page instead of reassigning the meaning of backspace in browsers? And while we're at it, how about you fix Chrome so that when I hit tab in a gmail compose window I get a tab instead of jumping to the send button. I've sent a whole bunch of annoying empty emails because of this.
I've been waiting for years for this. Anyone who has ever sat with a crying child, or adult really, who just lost something important to them because they hit the backspace and got yanked to a previous page appreciates just what a horrible, horrible UX decision this was. I cannot think of any other UX I've seen that LITERALLY makes people cry. It's about time!