Follow hints (link navigation)

[mgraham]

Most vim-like browsers (Vimium, vimperator, etc.) have a feature, where you press a key and then the browser decorates all links on the page with one or two letters. Then you type those letters to follow the link.

Will this kind of feature eventually be possible in Otter?

Is it the kind of thing that would be written as an Otter-specific extension? Or will Otter eventually be able to run Chrome extensions like Vimium?

[The-Compiler]

It's definitely possible using either javascript or the QWebElement API. I've implemented hints in my own project (qutebrowser).

See #42 for extensions - though I guess it'll take some while until something like Vimium will run.

[mgraham]

Cool. Thanks!

@The-Compiler - hey qutebrowser is a nice browser! It even has spatial navigation hidden in there! Well done!

[ersi-dnd]

In DWB and Luakit and Lynx and Elinks the same is also available. In my opinion, Opera's spatial navigation is by far better.

Spatial navigation can be emulated in Elinks, but I have heard it's too difficult to do in webkit browsers. Does qutebrowser's spatial navigation start from the middle of page when you are in the middle or does it start always from the beginning?

It would be great to have all the link search methods available in Otter:

• Find link text (like ordinary Find, but looks only for link text)
• Jump to next link (like spatial navigation - Opera's spatial navigation is best in this area)
• Links panel: Sort, filter, multi-download & more
• Link numbering/lettering (follow hints)

[mgraham]

Qutebrowser's spatial navigation appears to start in the middle of the page if you are in the middle of the page.

[ersi-dnd]

This is how Qutebrowser documents its own spatial navigation in qutebrowser.conf

spatial-navigation (bool):
Enables or disables the Spatial Navigation feature
Spatial navigation consists in the ability to navigate between
focusable elements in a Web page, such as hyperlinks and form
controls, by using Left, Right, Up and Down arrow keys. For
example, if a user presses the Right key, heuristics determine
whether there is an element he might be trying to reach towards
the right and which element he probably wants.
Valid values: true, false
Default: false

I tried it and it seems to work. The faults:

• It's quite invisible. It's a matter of luck and guessing to know where you have navigated.
• The keys are unconfigurable.

Otherwise it kind of navigates and its implementation could be usable for Otter too.

[The-Compiler]

There's nothing special implemented in qutebrowser really. The only thing it does is to turn on the QWebSettings::SpatialNavigationEnabled attribute.

[ersi-dnd]

Really? What is it called when you navigate with the Tab key? The Tab key kind of jumping from element to element is available all the time.

[The-Compiler]

I don't follow - I don't think that has any special name.

Either way, this issue should probably be split up - this is about hints (i.e. labling links with a label). If Otter doesn't expose the spatial navigation attribute, I'd suggest to open a separate issue for that.

[Frenzie]

Really? What is it called when you navigate with the Tab key? The Tab key kind of jumping from element to element is available all the time.

I don't know if it has a name, but I'd call it something like sequential navigation. The beauty of spatial navigation is that it doesn't focus links such as they are sequentially located in the source, after all.

[Shatur]

It would be very nice to have this feature.

[ghost]

any updates ?