RE: browsers + arrow keys + bidi

Why do you prefer the way Firefox behaves?

First, Firefox clearly has a cursor selection bug. Cursor-selecting in a single direction should end up with the whole string selected and it doesn’t in FF.

But more to the point: why do you think “right” means “forward”? In an RTL context (which implies an RTL language or culture), right means *back*. Your attribution of “forward” or “back” to the directions “left” and “right” is culturally/linguistically linked. Otherwise, RTL users constantly have to think about the fact that the “forward” arrow points in the wrong direction!

Addison

From: Andre Schappo [mailto:A.Schappo@lboro.ac.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2018 2:57 AM
To: www International <www-international@w3.org>
Subject: browsers + arrow keys + bidi


When dealing with bidi text I think of right arrow key as forward arrow and left arrow key as back arrow.

Looking at the last 2 textboxes in the results window at jsfiddle.net/coas/qa8190kn<http://jsfiddle.net/coas/qa8190kn> The first of these 2 is ltr and the last is rtl.

Now select some text in the ltr textbox using shift and forward arrow, say starting at the boundary between b and c. All the browsers behave as I expect. They are all working on memory order and they are all selecting the text I expect.

It is with the rtl textbox that there are differences. Of the browsers I tried, Firefox is the only one to behave as I expect ie shift + forward behaving the same and selecting the same text as in the ltr textbox. With the other browsers I tried, I had to use back arrow to select the same text.

I prefer the way Firefox behaves. Is there a standard for browser behaviour under these circumstances?

André Schappo