17

Not the same as this, but probably even worse, it's undesired behavior: when your browser asks you if you want to close a window and you confirm by hitting Enter, that key hit also gets intercepted by StackOverflow which is the next window and the result of it may be, for example, a submitted comment. This happened a lot with me, and it's definitely not a double-Enter. Answering OK with the mouse is fine.

I think it's natural to lookup something in another browser window before you post your comment. And it's a bug anyway.

So far it happened a lot in Safari/OSX10.6 and to be honest I don't want to experiment in other browsers, as the result of it is a submitted comment. To reproduce:

  • Open StackOverflow in Safari, go to some post
  • Hit "add comment", start typing until you at least reach the minimum (15 chars, is it?)
  • Open a new browser window, go to Google.com, search for something
  • Close your browser with Google Search results: the latest version of Google Search makes at least Safari ask with a modal dialog box if you are sure about closing it, because Safari thinks you filled in a form and didn't submit it
  • Hit Enter in response: the window with Google Search closes and your comment on SO gets submitted

Edit instead of doing Google Search you can as well open StackOverflow, start asking a question, then try to close the window: both StackOverflow and the browser ask you if you are sure about leaving the page.

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6
  • Have not been able to replicate on IE8 on XP, not within another browser window, nor from another tab, nor from anoter window opened from another tab with focus returned to SO. – Grace Note♦ Nov 5 '10 at 14:23
  • 1
    No, Firefox is fine. – mojuba Nov 5 '10 at 14:31
  • If you see this comment, it's confirmed in Safari. – mojuba Nov 5 '10 at 14:34
  • Chrome is fine too. – mojuba Nov 5 '10 at 14:37
  • @mojuba, no it is not: Enter posts comments as well, if you use context menu (via keyboard), select a menuitem, press Enter - opps a comment submitted. – bestsss Dec 27 '11 at 15:33
  • This also occurred for me in Safari 8.0.2 while using OS X's spotlight to switch to another app. Hitting enter in spotlight to launch the app also posted the comment. – D.G. Jan 29 '15 at 21:22
14

The problem (if it is one) is that the event is on keyup, so it fires when the Enter key is released, not pressed. You're pressing Enter to close Safari's alert dialog, and releasing it after SO has focus again. So it's actually much easier to reproduce:

  • Type your comment on SO
  • Unfocus the browser
  • Hold down Enter
  • Refocus the browser and release Enter

I would expect this to submit the comment in all browsers, but I haven't tested any except Chrome

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7
  • Let's see how well your theory holds up! (Yeah, it totally happened here on IE8, XP) – Grace Note♦ Nov 5 '10 at 17:06
  • Ooh, now I have to try! Yes, it works in IE7 on Vista. – mmyers Nov 5 '10 at 17:08
  • Trying in Firefox... Yes, it happens with Firefox 4b6 – Zach Johnson Nov 5 '10 at 19:34
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    Ohh i see now!! This is silly :( – Johannes Schaub - litb Jul 2 '11 at 20:50
  • you don't even need to switch to another window. just unfocus (blur) the comment field, hold enter, focus the textfield again and release enter. – kritzikratzi Sep 27 '11 at 20:10
  • In Firefox it still works – Mołot Jul 10 '13 at 14:19
  • latest chrome on latest ubuntu – Frambot Jul 10 '13 at 16:06
2

I fear this bug has another, much more annoying, twist to it when using more complicated input languages (e.g. Chinese).

The following "works" in Mac OS:

  1. Start a new comment and type away to overcome the minimum length barrier
  2. Switch your input language to "Pinyin - Traditional" (or any other language that requires character selection via keyboard will do)
  3. Type an "a".
  4. Select a character from the OS dialog and press enter
  5. Unhappiness
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2
  • For sites that require the use of an IME, like a Chinese or Japanese language site, the SE team has the ability to turn off Enter submitting comments. For example, the Japanese site had this issue, but using the enter key no longer submits comments over there, which makes it possible to select the appropriate character from the IME. As far as I know, this is a site-level setting, so you'll still have trouble on sites like StackOverflow. See also meta.stackexchange.com/q/63644/160551 – Troyen Sep 27 '11 at 21:34
  • ah, thanks for your comment! i chose chinese as an example because i thought everyone would understand; in my case it's something very different: i've created a fake input language that allows me to insert greek alphabet and a few other characters by their name. oh well, guess this is not a #1 priority :) – kritzikratzi Sep 29 '11 at 23:49

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