Feature Request: Refrain from providing middle mouse button scroll lock

[WhiteKnight]

This is my use case:

I’m regularly browsing lists of hyperlinks to follow list items’ content in new browser tabs.

So, what I’m often doing is to middle click a hyperlink and immediately push the mouse away so I can continue my work using the keyboard without the mouse pointer being permanently in the way.

I’m a quick worker, so this is what happens when I’m either missing to hit a hyperlink or when a web designer decided it would be cute to show a Hand pointer on an element that’s not being a hyperlink:

1. I middle-click an element
2. auto-scroll ist getting enabled
3. I immediately release the middle mouse button
4. this enables scroll-lock mode for auto-scroll
5. I push the mouse away
6. the list item disappears into oblivion

See this screencast:

Desired situation

I want to continue to use auto-scroll for intentionally scrolling through a web page.

But I do not want scroll-lock to happen in any way, no matter how short I’m pressing the middle mouse button on a non-hyperlink element.

Please, add an additional option for permanently disabling scroll-lock when auto-scroll jumps in, so when the middle mouse button is released, scrolling always stops immediately.

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[Botond]

Do you mean that, when you use auto-scroll to intentionally scroll through a web page, you keep the middle mouse button pressed for the duration of the gesture?

[WhiteKnight]

Yes, exactly.

[Botond]

Thanks. I wonder how common this usage is; for me, it strains my finger quite a bit more to keep the button pressed while autoscrolling, so I like the ability to autoscroll without that.

That said, from a technical point of view, I don't see any obstacle to having an option that makes autoscroll behave in the described way.

[WhiteKnight]

Absolutely. That's why I suggest to implement it as an option.

BTW: FF currently behaves like suggested if you keep the middle mouse button pressed for a longer period than double-click timespan (e.g. 500ms). If you do, auto-scroll will not be enabled and you need to keep the middle mouse button pressed for scrolling to occur. Yet, there's this time threshold to pass.

[Botond]

I filed https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1923233 to track adding the option discussed in this thread.

[WhiteKnight]

Thanks a lot for taking the time here and open the Issue at BugZilla! 👍

[WhiteKnight]

Update: In contrast to what I wrote above, it's not the click time that causes auto-scroll to occur … it's the position delta.

So, if you keep the middle mouse button pressed for a long period of time but don't move the mouse pointer while the middle mouse button is being pressed … that's what causing auto-scroll to be enabled.

This doesn't change the importance of the requested option; I just wanted to point out that the explanation for the auto-scroll trigger is not what I had written above.