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A brief history of Windows scroll bar shortcuts

179 points · 118 comments · tybulewicz

  1. mrob · · focus · HN ↗
    IMO, "scroll here" should be the default action for clicking on a scrollbar. There are already good keyboard shortcuts for page up and page down, but there cannot be a keyboard shortcut for "scroll here". It's wasting the capability of the mouse to duplicate keyboard functionality when you could be benefiting from unique mouse-only functionality.

    GTK gets this right, and Qt does not.

    1. userbinator · · focus · HN ↗
      Oh hell no. If you think "scroll here" is a sane default, you haven't experienced the pain of jumping possibly thousands of lines in a long document with an accidental click, and no easy way to go back to where you were.
      1. winrid · · focus · HN ↗
        Make it an option so those with a skill issue don't make everyone else use a less powerful tool :)
        1. TeMPOraL · · focus · HN ↗
          Not every mouse has a scroll wheel, even today :).
          1. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

            [deleted]

          2. someguyiguess · · focus · HN ↗
            Sure. Not every computer has a keyboard either.
      2. eviks · · focus · HN ↗
        What's stops you from adding an easy way to go back?
      3. mrob · · focus · HN ↗
        I don't think that's a serious problem. There are three possibilities I can think of:

        1. You're editing text outside of Emacs. Your cursor remains where it was, so you insert a single character and the document scrolls back to the cursor. You can then delete that character.

        2. You're editing text in Emacs. You like to pretend it's still the 1970s and off-screen cursors are some pie-in-the-sky fantasy. You solve the problem with some unspecified ELISP wizardry, which as a self-respecting Emacs user you are surely capable of.

        3. You're reading a read-only document. You activate your full-text search, which every good document viewer has, and start typing the last sentence you read while it's still fresh in your memory.

        1. userbinator · · focus · HN ↗
          and start typing the last sentence you read while it's still fresh in your memory

          Double hell no. The majority of the time it's a log file with lots of repetitive lines, and I'm definitely NOT going to remember exactly the line, especially after the disruption of accidentally jumping somewhere unexpected.

          1. hdjrudni · · focus · HN ↗
            Wild idea: pressing the back button while your mouse is over the scroll bar takes you back to your previous scroll position.
      4. renehsz · · focus · HN ↗
        How about making it configurable system-wide? Except that ain't gonna happen with the insane fragmentation we're seeing in UI libraries
        1. Y-bar · · focus · HN ↗
          At least Mac OS has a global setting for this (oddly placed in the Appearance section):

          Click in the scroll bar to

          (•) Jump to the next page

          ( ) Jump to the spot that's clicked

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