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Back and forward buttons are obsolete |
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monkeyson2 (00:13 23/4/2004)
Phlamethrower (00:27 23/4/2004)
andypoole (00:54 23/4/2004)
Phlamethrower (00:55 23/4/2004)
[mentat] (08:57 23/4/2004)
filecore (15:07 26/4/2004)
ilcook (20:08 26/4/2004)
mavhc (09:50 23/4/2004)
midnightTrooper (10:12 23/4/2004)
rich (10:31 23/4/2004)
richcheng (11:01 23/4/2004)
john (10:39 23/4/2004)
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Phil Mellor |
Message #53709, posted by monkeyson2 at 00:13, 23/4/2004 |
 Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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I've just realised that I never use the back/forward buttons in a web browser, ever. I open nearly every link in a new window or tab. Occasionally I'll open a result from google in the same window if I know it's what I'm after and won't be going back to the search results.
So what's wrong with back/forward?
1. You can only look at one page at once.
2. You can only load one page at once - on dialup I like to read one page while loading another. Even on a fast connection you can surf more efficiently with multiple windows.
3. Once you go back and follow a different link you lose the pages you've visted. NetSurf's branching history would help here.
4. Back/forward are becoming less relevant for a lot of browser use now. These content management systems, online shopping things and so on don't fit with the browser history. Buy something, click back a few times, and it looks like it's back in your shopping basket. Go forward and you might end up buying it again - it depends on the site implementation obviously, but it's confusing and illogical. A postback to update the state of the page should be different to navigating to a new page.
Back and forward are dead! I've a good mind to produce a custom browser skin that excludes them...  |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #53711, posted by Phlamethrower at 00:27, 23/4/2004, in reply to message #53709 |
 Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff
Posts: 15100
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I tend to open stuff in new windows a lot, too. I use back quite a bit, but rarely touch forward. |
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Andrew Poole |
Message #53712, posted by andypoole at 00:54, 23/4/2004, in reply to message #53711 |
Posts: 5558
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I tend to open stuff in new windows a lot, too. I use back quite a bit, but rarely touch forward. OK, so it seems that I'm the only person here (so far) that uses them 
Andy. About to press back a few times to hop back out of the playpen again. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #53713, posted by Phlamethrower at 00:55, 23/4/2004, in reply to message #53712 |
Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff
Posts: 15100
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Andy. About to press back a few times to hop back out of the playpen again. I just click on 'The Icon Bar forums', so that I can get a fresh page to see if there are any new posts |
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I don't have tourettes you're just a cun |
Message #53719, posted by [mentat] at 08:57, 23/4/2004, in reply to message #53713 |
![[mentat]](/images/smileys/mentat.gif) Fear is the mind-killer
Posts: 6266
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Must admit, I use the back button (or backspace key in IE) quite a bit. |
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Mark Scholes |
Message #53720, posted by mavhc at 09:50, 23/4/2004, in reply to message #53709 |
Member
Posts: 660
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> I've just realised that I never use the back/forward buttons in a web browser, ever. I open nearly every link in a new window or tab. Occasionally I'll open a result from google in the same window if I know it's what I'm after and won't be going back to the search results.
If I did that I'd have 100 browser windows open instead of 30
> So what's wrong with back/forward?
> 1. You can only look at one page at once.
You can only read one page at once anyway
> 2. You can only load one page at once - on dialup I like to read one page while loading another. Even on a fast connection you can surf more efficiently with multiple windows.
Unless you're using Windows where too many windows open will bring it to a screeching halt
> 3. Once you go back and follow a different link you lose the pages you've visted. NetSurf's branching history would help here.
Define lose. The branching history is quite cool, but it's too unwieldy to use ATM, too few pages are visible.
> 4. Back/forward are becoming less relevant for a lot of browser use now. These content management systems, online shopping things and so on don't fit with the browser history. Buy something, click back a few times, and it looks like it's back in your shopping basket. Go forward and you might end up buying it again - it depends on the site implementation obviously, but it's confusing and illogical. A postback to update the state of the page should be different to navigating to a new page.
Yeah, that's annoying.
If you go to the wrong page, back takes you back, if you've finished reading a page, back, if you need to look at an older page, back (history), if then you want to go to the previous page, forward (history) |
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Lewis Westbury |
Message #53721, posted by midnightTrooper at 10:12, 23/4/2004, in reply to message #53709 |
Member
Posts: 147
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2. You can only load one page at once - on dialup I like to read one page while loading another. Even on a fast connection you can surf more efficiently with multiple windows. There's a few assumptions there:
1. opening a link as a new window is a one-click operation. we're light-years ahead on RISC OS with the 'right click opens a new window' convention
2. you can quickly despatch the window to the bottom of the stack so it will be read in order (again...)
3. (as blokey said) your system isn't crippled by having a handful of windows open (again...)
All in all, back and forward pretty much sit unused in RISC OS, but Windows is just too inefficient for that.
(I am in favour of Mozilla's tabs, but there should be an option to open a link in a new tab but stay looking at the page it came from) |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #53722, posted by rich at 10:31, 23/4/2004, in reply to message #53721 |
 Dictator for life
Posts: 6827
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(I am in favour of Mozilla's tabs, but there should be an option to open a link in a new tab but stay looking at the page it came from) There is. It's called "Load links in background". Then when you middle-click to open a new page WITH ONE CLICK PEOPLE it'll just add it to the tab bar, but keep you on the same page. If you're looking at something with lots of links, such as The Register, you can open up a dozen interesting articles without losing your place on the main page, then go through each ready-loaded news article in turn, reading and discarding them.
________
 Cheers,
Rich.
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John D |
Message #53723, posted by john at 10:39, 23/4/2004, in reply to message #53721 |
Member
Posts: 261
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The reason I avoid back and forward on RO is because they don't work properly - with most browsers on RO it refetches the page and often you get an error if it was a form. The worst are "there was an error with your form, press the back button and try again". I know that makes the page broken, but it also exposes a browser problem.
Just closing a window is as fast as back should be, back and close-opened-in-new-window are just two ways of doing the same thing. Just use whatever the browser/OS does better. |
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richard cheng |
Message #53724, posted by richcheng at 11:01, 23/4/2004, in reply to message #53722 |
Posts: 655
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(I am in favour of Mozilla's tabs, but there should be an option to open a link in a new tab but stay looking at the page it came from) There is. It's called "Load links in background". Then when you middle-click to open a new page WITH ONE CLICK PEOPLE it'll just add it to the tab bar, but keep you on the same page. If you're looking at something with lots of links, such as The Register, you can open up a dozen interesting articles without losing your place on the main page, then go through each ready-loaded news article in turn, reading and discarding them.
Opera also has "Open in background page" and "Open in background window" in it's right-click popup menu.
So you can open in a new window and dispatch it to the back in two clicks, just like in RISC OS (except probably a bit faster).
And for the record, I use Back a lot and Forward a bit. Never click on the buttons, though. Mouse gestures are the future, people! |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #53795, posted by filecore at 15:07, 26/4/2004, in reply to message #53719 |
Posts: 3867
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Must admit, I use the back button (or backspace key in IE) quite a bit. I muct admit, I use backspace a lot to delete things. That's annoying if IE hasn't registered properly where I place the cursor, and when I hit delete, end up going back a page. Particularly annoying on slow connections, or forum post pages where I've just lost my 10,000 word forum rant. |
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Ian Cook |
Message #53808, posted by ilcook at 20:08, 26/4/2004, in reply to message #53795 |
 Resident idiot
Posts: 1075
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Must admit, I use the back button (or backspace key in IE) quite a bit. I muct admit, I use backspace a lot to delete things. That's annoying if IE hasn't registered properly where I place the cursor, and when I hit delete, end up going back a page. Particularly annoying on slow connections, or forum post pages where I've just lost my 10,000 word forum rant.
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