Touch swiping doesn't work for back and forward navigation

[me]

I'm using 55.0.3 (64-bit) on Windows 8.1 on a Surface Pro
This has also been tested with FF Nightly

Swiping up and down scrolls as expected
One finger swiping left and right does not go forward and back. This works on other browsers such as Chrome.

I have checked and e10s is enabled with 4 processes.

I did a little experiment. In about:config, I searched for "swipe" and I get these preferences

browser.gesture.swipe.down = cmd_scrollBottom
browser.gesture.swipe.left = Browser:BackOrBackDuplicate
browser.gesture.swipe.right = Browser:ForwardOrForwardDuplicate
browser.gesture.swipe.up = cmd_scrollTop

to test if gestures are recognized, I changed them all to cmd_scrollBottom. The preferences then read:

browser.gesture.swipe.down = cmd_scrollBottom
browser.gesture.swipe.left = cmd_scrollBottom
browser.gesture.swipe.right = cmd_scrollBottom
browser.gesture.swipe.up = cmd_scrollBottom

Result: up/down scrolling works normally despite changing everything to the same scroll direction. Swiping left and right does not produce any scroll.

My interpretation is that browser.gesture.swipe doesn't control anything at all and some other preferences control the swipe recognition and response. In fact, I then changed the string value from "cmd_scrollBottom" to "do nothing" for each swipe direction and scrolling was unaffected.

So what setting does recognize touch input? Surely there are enough touchscreen users out there (and growing) for touch navigation to be a core functionality.

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message
<mailman.579.1506045649...@lists.mozilla.org>, me
<arsen...@gmail.com> writes:
[]

>to test if gestures are recognized, I changed them all to
>cmd_scrollBottom. The preferences then read:
>
>browser.gesture.swipe.down = cmd_scrollBottom
>browser.gesture.swipe.left = cmd_scrollBottom
>browser.gesture.swipe.right = cmd_scrollBottom
>browser.gesture.swipe.up = cmd_scrollBottom
>
>Result: up/down scrolling works normally despite changing everything to
>the same scroll direction. Swiping left and right does not produce any
>scroll.
>
>My interpretation is that browser.gesture.swipe doesn't control
>anything at all and some other preferences control the swipe
>recognition and response. In fact, I then changed the string value from
>"cmd_scrollBottom" to "do nothing" for each swipe direction and
>scrolling was unaffected.

[]
At a guess, the scrolling is being recognised by part of the OS (Windows
8.1 in your case), and not being passed to Firefox. If I'm right, I
don't think any setting change in Firefox will fix it. Do swipe up and
down work in other things (e. g. Notepad, Word)? [I've never used a
touch screen in a Windows.]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

> > Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you. -Richard

[me]

Swiping does work fine in other programs, including browsers such as Chrome. It seems the swipe recognition is only broken when it comes to left/right swiping, since swipe up and down behaves normally.

What's more puzzling to me is that the settings in Firefox that look like they would control swipe recognition (up/down/left/right) don't seem to actually control anything, as evidenced by my nullifying browser.gesture.swipe in all directions and still being able to scroll up/down.

I don't have access to a non-Windows touchscreen device running desktop Firefox but I'd invite anyone who does have one to try tweaking those settings to confirm that they're ineffective?

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message
<mailman.636.1506187608...@lists.mozilla.org>, me

<arsen...@gmail.com> writes:
>Swiping does work fine in other programs, including browsers such as
>Chrome. It seems the swipe recognition is only broken when it comes to
>left/right swiping, since swipe up and down behaves normally.
>
>What's more puzzling to me is that the settings in Firefox that look
>like they would control swipe recognition (up/down/left/right) don't
>seem to actually control anything, as evidenced by my nullifying
>browser.gesture.swipe in all directions and still being able to scroll
>up/down.

That does look to me as if the OS is intercepting your swipes, and
passing them to Firefox as something else (e. g. PgUp/PgDn). [And there
isn't a non-swipe equivalent for left/right; I've often wished there
was, e. g. in IrfanView, where the only way to move left/right by
amounts larger than the arrow keys _requires_ you to use the mouse.]

Does (e. g.) Chrome have similar settings? If so, what happens _there_
if you alter them? Do left/right swiping work in Chrome?

>
>I don't have access to a non-Windows touchscreen device running desktop
>Firefox but I'd invite anyone who does have one to try tweaking those
>settings to confirm that they're ineffective?

If it's a Windows thing (Windows intercepting the swipes), then knowing
whether other OSs behave similarly might not help you.

Might be worth looking at the settings for the driver for your
touchscreen; I've never played with such a driver, but the ones for a
touch_pad_ have lots of settings (at least if it's a Synaptics pad,
which most seem to be, or at least they work with a Synaptics driver).

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Parkinson: "What caused your conversion to women - was it the love of a good
one?" George Melly: "No the love of several bad ones" (Lizbuff in UMRA
'01-4-25)