A bug which only affected left-handed users

27 points by FedericoSchonborn 5 hours ago on lobsters | 15 comments

So much of the world is right handed. Most pens even have their advertising where it is legible only if held right handed. At least being a lefty carries some innate adblock utility.

vivicat | 3 hours ago

oh my god, i never realized that the text on pens and pencils was meant to be readable while holding the pen, and that holding it lefty style means it's always upside down! that's a new one

chrismorgan | an hour ago

I tried to think of pens that would match your description and failed. I looked up pictures of pens and still failed, though one was just close enough that it reminded me of one fancy pen that might qualify.

Semanticist | an hour ago

Try Google images of 'promotional pen'. Think less 'fancy pen' and more 'throwaway marketing pen'.

sunflowerseastar | 3 hours ago

a sinister disposition

Ha! I remember the day that I learned that 'sinister' and 'dexterous' (dexter) literally mean 'left' and 'right,' respectively. I am still intrigued by this cultural-phenomenon-that-we-live-with (viz. deviation from norm -> evil) to this day.

gecko | an hour ago

I'm extremely left-hand dominant, but for the few tasks that I can do with either hand, I usually reject the term "ambi-dexterous" and instead describe myself as "omni-sinisterous".

Do... people normally only hold a phone in their primary hand? I'm left-handed but hold my phone in either hand about equally at random, and kind of just figured everyone did that.

radex | 2 hours ago

A data point: I'm definitely faster at touchscreen typing in my dominant hand. I can use either (it's not as hard as handwriting), but for anything more than a glance at the screen or a few swipes, it is more comfortable with my dominant hand.

JulianSildenLanglo | 2 hours ago

When doing anything more than looking at the screen yeah pretty much only ever the correct hand.

jfred | 3 hours ago

Interestingly enough, despite being right-handed for almost everything else, I do gravitate towards holding and using my phone in my left hand. I'm not sure why, I think maybe because I keep my phone in my left pocket and my wallet/keys in my right; it feels easier to use keys and pull out my wallet with my dominant hand. I wonder if I'm unusual in this.

swifthand | an hour ago

I do precisely this, and it is for that exact reason. Phone goes in the left pocket, so withdrawing it means it will be in my left hand.

I end up scrolling and doing basic tasks with my left hand, but typing a long message I tend to swipe-type with my right hand while still holding in my left.

chrismorgan | an hour ago

touchstart was always wrong there.

  • Mouse, touch and pointer activate on release, not press; but the press must have begun on the same element.
  • Keyboard events activate on keydown, not keyup.
  • … except for Space activating a button, that’s keyup for some reason. And unlike mouse, it doesn’t care which element the keydown occurred on.

Play with something like data:text/html,<button onclick=this.textContent=Math.random()>One</button><button onclick=this.textContent=Math.random()>Two</button> to explore the possibilities.

It would have been fine to prepare to activate on touchstart, e.g. start fetching some data from the server if needed, but the actual action must not occur yet, which is what element.addEventListener( 'touchstart', clickEvent ); wrongly did.

I didn't understand what it has to do with being left-handed though.

Is that some touchpad quirk this mouse user just doesn't understand?

jfred | 3 hours ago

It wasn't explicitly stated in the post, but the linked PR makes it clear that it's about touchscreen usage. Presumably on a smartphone.

spiffytech | 2 hours ago

It was a mobile touch event bug which only left-handed users encountered. Right-handed users dragged the screen with their right thumb, so their finger never came near the malfunctioning link.