philc / philc/vimium

Bug: ESC should always go to normal mode, even when websites try to prevent it (e.g. WhatsApp Web)

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Dominant language
JavaScript
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Description

Describe the bug
If you are focused in a text field in WhatsApp Web, it prevents you from leaving using ESC.
For a non vim based UI this might make sense, but I would love an option to go back into normal mode.

So if a website prevents you from leaving a text field, vimium should be able to overwrite this and go into normal mode.
There could also be added an option to disable this behavior, but in most cases I think this is an improvement.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

  1. Open https://web.whatsapp.com/ and connect it with your phone
  2. Open a Chat
  3. Select the text field
  4. Press ESC, it doesn't work

Browser and Vimium version
Firefox 90.0.2

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the issue in Firefox 90.0.2 at web.whatsapp.com, then trace Vimium's ESC handling and how the page prevents the key event. Done means ESC enters normal mode from the focused text field despite the site's prevention, with any added opt-out behavior covered if that option is chosen.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
frontend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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