Bug#775579: iceweasel: Clicking Iceweasel's URL bar does not preselect the existing URL

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

Control: severity -1 wishlist

On Sat 2015-01-17 12:21:59 -0500, Alexander Veit wrote:

> clicking (activating) Iceweasel's URL bar does not preselect the existing URL.
> An input cursor is opened at the click position instead.

fwiw, i consider iceweasel's current behavior a feature.  Chromium has
the behavior Alexander wants iceweasel to adopt, and i find it annoying.

> Since most use cases like typing in, copying of the URL, or pasting a new URL,
> require the existing URL to be completely marked, browsers normally preselect
> the whole existing URL in these cases.  To fulfill the user's expectations
> Iceweasel should behave the same.

If i want the whole URL selected, i use ctrl+l, which behaves as you
describe.

If i want my insertion point (keyboard cursor) at a particular point in
the active URL (e.g. to try to modify it in a particular way, by
stripping off or adding parameters), i use the mouse to place it where i
want.

Having the mouse select the whole URL would mean that attempting to
place the cursor in the right spot in the URL bar is an entirely
different piece of muscle memory than basically anywhere else that i use
the mouse (textareas, input fields, etc).

I'd prefer that iceweasel keep the current behavior.

    --dkg