For some reason, Firefox 3.0.7 force disables the KeyConfig extension (itself a workaround for Firefox bugs that have been around for more than 2 years and gone unfixed).
The main problem is that on OS X, the keys for editing in a textfield get overridden by firefox re-binding the same controls for moving back and forth in page history.
e.g. Press the OS X key combo for “jump to start of line” == Firefox will instead hit the Back button (and you cannot disable this directly inside Firefox. I did once try to do it through hand-editing config files, but it didn’t work)
Why is this still not fixed in Firefox? I’ve no idea (although I have a vague memory of FF developers specifically advising people to install KeyConfig as it provides not only a workaround (you disable the broken “feature” of FF) but it also adds a lot of useful missing functionality).
Anyway. I’m now in a really bad position that any form filling in Firefox is difficult and sometimes wipes data – that includes everything from “replying to emails” to “writing blog posts”. Hopefully I can find some hack that forces Firefox to re-enable the plugin (or I can find a copy of the last working version of firefox which allows KeyConfig to run, and uninstall Firefox, and install the working version)
NB: Firefox does, of course, warn you when plugins are going to be disabled. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten that the reason I had the KeyConfig plugin was not so much a “nice little add-on” as “essential fix for core bug in Firefox” :(.
6 replies on “Firefox 3.0/OS X: Do NOT install 3.0.7”
It may just have been disabled by configuration inside KeyConfig – specifically, KeyConfig’s manifest might specify a maxVersion. You might be able to just alter the KeyConfig .xpi (it’s a zipfile) and get it mostly working again…
Thanks – I know KC has that problem anyway, as I had to do it originally to get it to work with 3.0.
But it’s carried on working without changes with the past 5 or so updates to 3.0.x, so I’m assuming that something more hard-core happened this time around?
I’ll try the maxVersion hack, and see if that’s all – maybe FF somehow found an “official” copy of the manifest somewhere and overwrote my hacked version?
KeyConfig sounds really nice, but I can’t find it on the mozilla addons site. Link?
Firefox made the right decision from a UI design perspective, in my opinion. It’s more important to them that Firefox on OS X behave the way a Windows user of Firefox expects it to, than for Firefox on OS X to behave the way an OS X user unfamiliar with Firefox expects it to behave.
If it’s any consolation, as a long-time Unix user on Windows I have problems remembering whether in a given context ^W erases the previous word, or closes the window… :-(
Quoting Weigel:
Firefox made the right decision from a UI design perspective, in my opinion. It’s more important to them that Firefox on OS X behave the way a Windows user of Firefox expects it to, than for Firefox on OS X to behave the way an OS X user unfamiliar with Firefox expects it to behave.
——
Firstly, I’m going to ignore your assumption that people having this problem on Mac are new to Firefox.
Secondly, sorry, what did you just say? That’s it’s more important that Windows users needs be met on a program that runs on OSX? First of all even if that was true I don’t see how this shortcut (cmd-left and cmd-right to go forward and back) is consistent with a Windows user’s expectation (don’t remember seeing a cmd key on a windows keyboard last time i checked).
Wouldn’t ‘the right decision from a UI design perspective’ be to have the program behave in the way that is expected by a user of the operating system that the program is actually running on????
(In this case the expected behaviour is ‘jump to the start/end of the line of text input’ as opposed to back/forward a page and losing all the important email/blog post/order form data you’ve entered so far- which, as you may imagine, might be highly irritating).
Clearly it would be even better UI to let users modify the keyboard shortcuts. Perhaps that way maybe your mythical Windows user of Firefox that is playing with their friend’s Mac can edit the key config so that they can install a keyboard shortcut utilising keys they don’t even have on their own computer to navigate forward and back.
I very rarely comment on the internet but it’s entirely possible that I’ve never heard anything so profoundly wayward in my life. Is it possible that you have had an undected stroke, or have some form of brain cancer or viral meningitis that has not yet been diagnosed and that is causing you to make such blatently ridiculous statements.
My only hope is that you will now go see a doctor to check this out, and thus what I have just written will save your life.
With love.
Johnny
PS Matthew, if you’re offended, don’t forget that the combined joy of people reading my post will hopefully far outweigh the pain you are experiencing right now. Thank you for doing your bit to deliver this gift to all those reading this post.
PPS Please direct any questions and comments to johnny.incredulous at gmail.com
PPPS my site – http://iloveutomorrow.com
PPPPS Praise Allah/God/The Universe that I haven’t accidentally tried to jump the start or end of the line while typing this ;~)
“First of all even if that was true I don’t see how this shortcut (cmd-left and cmd-right to go forward and back) is consistent with a Windows user’s expectation (don’t remember seeing a cmd key on a windows keyboard last time i checked).”
The Cmd keys on a Mac keyboard are where Alt is on a PC keyboard. There are quite a few examples of this positional correspondence being used: I think it was OS X 10.3 that introduced Cmd-Tab to mimic the classic Windows behavior of Alt-Tab. Another good reason is that unlike Microsoft, Apple discourages Option/Alt from being used as a general hot key modifier.
“Wouldn’t ‘the right decision from a UI design perspective’ be to have the program behave in the way that is expected by a user of the operating system that the program is actually running on? [spurious question marks deleted]”
The right decision from a UI design perspective requires analysis of who the users are, and what priorities are highest. Mozilla’s goal is to provide a standardized experience across all the platforms that Firefox supports, and to make Firefox a “safe” option anywhere a Firefox user might want it. Apple has a different set of priorities for Safari on Windows, Microsoft abandoned Internet Explorer on OS X to meet their priorities, and the Camino Project started a browser specifically to provide most of Firefox’s benefits without the multi-platform tradeoffs.
For each, different priorities and different user bases dictated different UI design decisions, which are appropriate in different contexts.
HTH, HAND