Closure and Cappuccino--When Worlds Collide
David Mark
http://groups.google.com/group/closure-library-discuss/browse_thread/thread/ee69361e62c60333
So one of the guys who constantly fiddles with the Cappuccino browser
sniffing to provide the illusion that it works noticed a "bug" in
GoogClosure's keyboard module.
if (goog.userAgent.IE &&
!opt_shiftKey &&
(opt_heldKeyCode == goog.events.KeyCodes.CTRL ||
opt_heldKeyCode == goog.events.KeyCodes.ALT)) {
return false;
}
The corresponding comment from the header above the method:
* Additionally, IE6 does not fire keydown or keypress events for
letters when
* the control or alt keys are held down and the shift key is not. IE7
does
* fire keydown in these cases, though, but not keypress.
There's some confused reports from an anonymous observer. No mention
of keyup at all. Makes you wonder if they understood what they were
documenting. :)
These anecdotes have been converted to "logic" to fool naive
developers into thinking they are using cross-browser code. The
reality is that the authors will be back in here every time a new
browser comes out (or a new observation is logged).
Turns out the OP was "right" and they are going to patch it right up.
So everyone using GoogClosure, standby to download it again (and be
sure to tell QA to start over).
Of course, some (bigger) fools will look at all of the recent
twiddling and conclude it indicates freshness. Confirming it appears
to work in the default configuration of the latest versions of major
browsers is the typical "corroboration". If there's a problem, some
smart egg stranger will fiddle around with it until it works for their
browsers' UA strings (breaking who knows how many others in the
process).
The good news is that this crap has no shot of catching on at this
point. These days, not even jQuery sniffs the UA string. In general
(outside of Google apparently), developers have figured out that it is
a stupendously foolish thing to do. It was certainly known to be poor
practice when this code was written (2005-2006).