Facebook & The Delete key
The delete key does not function properly on the facebook comment entry area. It only deletes one character then does not work again. It also does not delete a surname when chosen from the suggestion window. This only occurs with Tenfourfox and has been this way for many revisions. Tested on the same machine with Roccat & it works as expected.
Keyboard shortcuts
Generic
| ? | Show this help |
|---|---|
| ESC | Blurs the current field |
Comment Form
| r | Focus the comment reply box |
|---|---|
| ^ + ↩ | Submit the comment |
You can use Command ⌘ instead of Control ^ on Mac
1 Posted by pjpreilly on 15 Jan, 2017 08:35 PM
This is the G4 7450 version on ibook G4.
2 Posted by annrigby on 15 Jan, 2017 09:02 PM
I have the same issue using ten four fox on my powerbook g4 on facebook. Cannot use the delete button, but up until recently I could. delete button works fine everywhere else. Any idea?
Support Staff 3 Posted by Chris (chtrusch... on 15 Jan, 2017 09:57 PM
I have no idea why this is or what can be done, I can only suggest to use ctrl+a and then start typing again (which is what I usually do on Facebook or any small text entry field), or to use foreward-delete (fn+delete on a notebook keyboard).
Support Staff 4 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 15 Jan, 2017 10:04 PM
I don't have a Facebook account, so I can't evaluate or debug this. If there is another site people observe similar behaviour on, please advise.
One thing that would be very helpful is to determine at which point the behaviour changed.
Support Staff 5 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 15 Jan, 2017 10:09 PM
Also, on this page, which uses Facebook comments outside of Facebook, I am able to backspace normally. Does it do the same for you?
http://www.pe.com/articles/lake-823083-elsinore-water.html
6 Posted by pjpreilly on 15 Jan, 2017 11:01 PM
If i type in "nnnnnnnnnnn" then hit the delete key fast some n's are deleted but others are not & the cursor ends up with n's on both sides of it. This isn't correct either but in a different manner.
7 Posted by pjpreilly on 15 Jan, 2017 11:05 PM
...further testing on that page shows the delete key works once & subsequent pushes have no effect.
8 Posted by pjpreilly on 15 Jan, 2017 11:17 PM
I'm able to reproduce the same issues in that comment section of this page in safe mode: http://www.pe.com/articles/lake-823083-elsinore-water.html
The problems occur if you pause for a few seconds before using the delete key.
Support Staff 9 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 15 Jan, 2017 11:21 PM
On both my quad G5 and iMac G4 (running 10.4.11), I visited the PE page linked above, typed 'nnnnnnnn' into the comment box, waited 10 seconds, and then hit DELETE repeatedly. No deletes were missed on either computer.
Since you say it occurs in safe mode, then that would make add-on interference unlikely. Does it also occur with a clean profile and default settings?
Are your computers 10.5? If you have a 10.4 system, does it occur there too?
10 Posted by pjpreilly on 15 Jan, 2017 11:28 PM
I installed a clean profile recently to no avail. It occurs on both 10.5 & 10.4 on the same machine.
11 Posted by pjpreilly on 15 Jan, 2017 11:41 PM
For what it's worth the repeat key function on this tenfourfox page paints one character at a time but on the facebook comment space it paints about 6 characters at a time(bursting them), pauses and then 6 more & so on.
Support Staff 12 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 15 Jan, 2017 11:48 PM
I can see that if I hold the key down, but the delay simply seems to be a regular garbage collection pause. The Facebook comment box is actually calling a somewhat heavy script for every character entered, so more frequent pauses for garbage collection would be absolutely normal behaviour. I don't think that is related to the main problem you reported with your DELETE key.
Unfortunately I don't have any other suggestions right now.
13 Posted by pjpreilly on 15 Jan, 2017 11:58 PM
Should I try an older version? Which version should I start with & what progression from there?
Support Staff 14 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 16 Jan, 2017 12:19 AM
38 was when we introduced the new JIT (though the fact you say safe mode doesn't fix it tends to exonerate the JIT) and 45 has a number of other changes, so I'd look at the final versions of 31 and 38 as a comparison point. If the problem is still in those versions, I would start to wonder if you have a local issue like some system keyboard extension with clashing settings.
Assuming you do find an older version where the problem doesn't manifest, just go version by version from there.
15 Posted by pjpreilly on 16 Jan, 2017 12:53 AM
"......get out of the house! The call is coming from INSIDE of the house!"
Turns out you have to be logged into facebook no matter what page you are on for the problem to occur. I got logged out on an older version & it worked fine until I logged back in, so...................................
This might be a good time for a Tenfourfox facebook page?
Support Staff 16 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 16 Jan, 2017 02:48 AM
Although I sympathize with the problem, I regard Facebook's usage of personal information to be unethical, which is why I deleted my account and I won't use them or services they own. If the problem is strictly limited to being logged into Facebook, I'm not recreating an account merely to test a service I personally refuse to use.
If you can find a page that does not require being logged into Facebook that does show the problem, however, I will evaluate it.
It's still worth finding the regression range (i.e., the point at which it stopped working), though. Even if I can't/won't reproduce the problem on a local testing machine, I might still be able to narrow down the potential issue. By testing it with safe mode you've exonerated the JIT and add-ons, so it now becomes possibly a system integration issue or a DOM events issue.
17 Posted by pjpreilly on 16 Jan, 2017 02:54 AM
U could setup a dummy account for testing purposes. Maybe learn some things you or others might want to or need to know?
18 Posted by pjpreilly on 16 Jan, 2017 03:22 AM
I tested as far back as 31.8,0 & when logged in it doesn't work correctly. Let me know if you want me to test anything else otherwise I've exhausted my investigation.
Support Staff 19 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 16 Jan, 2017 04:00 AM
That's an incredibly long time for that issue to be present and no one to notice. The only other thing I can think of is testing it against 22.0.2, which would have been the last version of JaegerMonkey prior to switching to PPCBC. If it even occurs there, I'm not sure what to say.
20 Posted by pjpreilly on 16 Jan, 2017 04:19 AM
Excuse me if I'm being insensitive but if your morals preclude you from staging a software bug I've tracked down for you most of this afternoon (It was my pleasure) I will be recusing myself from any further investigation. I don't need any more reasons not to turn on my G4 now I have one more.
Support Staff 21 Posted by Chris (chtrusch... on 16 Jan, 2017 03:19 PM
It's not the browser that changed, it's likely Facebook. They changed their text boxes recently (now overlay windows for a lot more things), and I can well imagine they introduced the bug with this change. I use Facebook a lot (mainly for community pages I maintain; my personal profile is largely made-up for privacy reasons) and I never noticed it.
I'll do some more testing tonight vs Safari 5.x and Firefox 45 ESR on Windows.
Support Staff 22 Posted by Chris (chtrusch... on 16 Jan, 2017 05:04 PM
The problem doesn't occur on Windows XP (tested FF 38.x ESR, 45.1 ESR and 45.6 ESR).
Further investigation shows: As soon as I start typing in a text entry field for creating a Timeline post, I see our old friend popping up in the console:
18:01:43.470 TypeError: asm.js type error: AsmJS not currently supported on PowerPC; downgrading to IonPower1 _Y7ZxlaR1uE.js
Support Staff 23 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 16 Jan, 2017 07:28 PM
Does Safari 5 also have the problem? This would at least indicate if it's an endian issue or not.
Support Staff 24 Posted by Chris (chtrusch... on 16 Jan, 2017 08:01 PM
Safari 5.0.6 does not have the issue.
Support Staff 25 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 16 Jan, 2017 08:04 PM
Okay, then that makes it most likely something about how we do DOM events, though that should affect a lot more than just a logged-in Facebook instance. I tried the Facebook help center, but the bug doesn't manifest there, along with a few other sites that use Facebook comments.
26 Posted by Brian Szemon on 17 Jan, 2017 12:25 AM
I have noticed when looking through my feed and commenting I have to press the (ESC) key to continue scrolling down the page with the "UP and "DWN" arrow keys I'm also getting instances of correcting mistakes with the (Backspace) key it will only move back a few letters then hit a brick wall and I will have to highlight the word then start over. As far as the delete key I have not seen any problems are you sure it's not the (Backspace) key were talking about but then again I'm using a windows keyboard on my mac mini.
27 Posted by pjpreilly on 17 Jan, 2017 07:31 AM
Windows XP? Really? I'm running ESR on 10.6 32 bit macbook 1,1 if that's relevant for comparison testing. This problem is unique to this platform from what I can tell.
Support Staff 28 Posted by Chris (chtrusch... on 17 Jan, 2017 02:19 PM
Brian Szemon: That key is labelled DELETE (or <--- on Euro keyboards) for Macs. I've never encountered what you describe about the Esc key, though.
pjpreilly: I don't have an Intel Mac, I run Virtual PC for testing with XP, VPC doesn't go any further than that. Please consider you attitude in wording your replies. We all do this for free in our spare time. Thank you.
If you can test this on an Intel Mac with Firefox ESR 45.6, please do. I'm
almost certain, however, that it'll work there.
29 Posted by Brian Szemon on 17 Jan, 2017 06:32 PM
Chris I've learned something about Euro keyboards today thanks. Also with the deleting or correcting mistakes with the "backspace" or "DELETE" key on facebook their is a glitch that prevents you from erasing or correcting a word their are invisible glyphs that can't be removed using the "backspace" or "DELETE" key I copied the test text and pasted it in a new tab and they appear as this --->"disappear me o" so why these glyphs are showing up when typing in facebook and preventing corrections using that key is beyond me. Also the glitch about entering comments then not being able too scroll using the arrow keys as the prompt is still blinking in the new comment section bellow after I made a comment. Moving the mouse to the side a clicking dose nothing but after I press "ESC" the text prompt disappears and I can scroll again this just started happening after the recent FB changes this site is always changing code I've just excepted the glitch or whatever.
30 Posted by Brian Szemon on 17 Jan, 2017 06:36 PM
Interesting the glyphs did not show in my above post when I was done here is an image of what I mean by glyphs.