philc / philc/vimium

Feature request: Rasterized page instead of 'f' link highlighting

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Dominant language
JavaScript
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Description

Description
Some pages don't use the "correct" click events or buttons, but more "mouse-up" etc. to trigger those events. Some only show links as soon as you hover with your mouse over it.
To still navigate through the page just by using your keyboard and still using somehow the same idea like the "open link" f/F navigation, I would suggest implementing something like a "rasterized" page. As soon as you type the trigger key (v like in "view"?), a grid will be shown on your page. You can now either press the shown letters to click on the center of a grid cell, or you press v and those letters to show a more detailed subgrid (other option: press v again to divide the whole grid into subgrids).
As soon as one of the letters is close enough (one step or two steps should be sufficient) to the area you want to be clicked, you press the shown letter(s).

Example
Steps to show the behavior:

  1. Open the website
  2. Press v to show the grid
    image
  3. Press v again and then al to show a subgrid at the spot
    image
  4. Press r to click on the spot you were looking for (or R to open it in a new tab/window whatever)
  5. The respective link opens

The images are just mockups. You will probably neither use all letters of the alphabet, nor can v be used. The grid should be two-colored so you can lay it over light & dark pages. The grid itself should be configurable so you can define on your own how "big" a cell is.

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

No files, tests, or entry points are named. Start by reviewing the issue description and mockups, then locate the existing keyboard navigation and link-highlighting behavior. Done would require a configurable rasterized grid, keyboard selection and subgrid navigation, normal and new-tab activation, and visibility on both light and dark pages.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
frontend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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