Joe,
I have put out a message to the Mozilla devs asking for clarification on
why the function keys are not allowed to be fully trapped in JS and how
difficult it would be to allow it. I understand where you are coming from
here, but I don't think it has anything to do with the devs being lazy. It
has to do with the paradigm on windows (or other OSs). The Fkeys are open
game for the program running. Just like they are open game for the 5250
emulator. Until the idea of 5250 emulation in the browser came along,
there really wasn't any call for function key accessibility in the
browser.
When were you able to use all the Fkeys in IE? I'm not aware that it was
ever possible.... could you share more about how it worked?
Could you do it w/o using ActiveX? If so you're in the realm of vendor
lock in which is supposed to be the antithesis of what the web is about.
How would a Linux or Mac user use an IE based app with ActiveX then?
Answer: They don't.
Thanks
Bryce Martin
Programmer/Analyst I
570-546-4777
Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
05/09/2011 03:22 PM
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Subject
Re: Warning - Firefox v4 not compatible with HMC 7.7.1
On 5/9/2011 2:03 PM, Bryce Martin wrote:
Why can't the "standard" function keys change? You are trying to adapt
to
the web... so you might have to change the way things worked before...
*gasp* change? Yep, change. Remember, when you are developing for the
web, you are now in the browser's territory...so you have to play by the
browser's rules.
With IE I didn't have to "play by the browser's rules". Instead, I was
able to write applications that my users were able to use with minimal
retraining. New and shiny is worthless if it isn't as productive as old
and rusty.
Plus, I see no reason for browsers not to make all those keys accessible
to JavaScript. It's lazy coding on their part, and I don't know why my
users should lose keys on their keyboard just because somebody decided
it didn't fit this week's idea of a standard.
I can understand changing the paradigm when the device changes - e.g.,
tablets - but browsers have perfectly working keyboards attached to them
and I ought to be able to use every key on the keyboard.
Joe
midrange.com
