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Comment by bmicraft | Hacker News Reader

What's the point in having the protocol spelled out when you have the lock icon anyways? I don't think this would be a useful default.

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I agree! The protocol is not particularly interesting information, as long as it indicates secure vs. non-secure connection somehow. As long as it comes along when you copy the URL, it's fine.

The bad version of this trend is when you hide the path after the domain like Safari does. That's awful design, that's a very relevant part of the URL!

It's quite annoying when the https:// prefix is hidden but then appears in copy-paste. Quite often I'd like to run things like "host -t mx <paste>" or "whois <paste>" and then it also copies the invisible "https://" prefix which is incorrect for these use cases.

https://xkcd.com/1172/

How is copying a hostname from the address bar an unreasonable workflow? How would you whois the site you're viewing?

One thing that was quite annoying to me is the URL changing under my cursor on double-click if the protocol is hidden. However, I can see that editing the URL is a niche use case. Fair enough.

I hate that editing URLs is practically impossible in Chrome on iOS (not sure about Android or other iOS browsers). There seems to be no equivalent of arrow keys to navigate around inside the address bar. If I screeenmash enough I think I can sometimes get it to go to the very start or end of the URL, but anything in between is hopeless.

(Posting this partially in hopes that someone tells me how to do it to prove me wrong...)

It's definitely got worse (on Android) because pressing the address bar now deletes the URL and you need to press the separate edit icon to get it back and modify it. Used to just put you straight into editing mode. But you can still touch to position the cursor, backspace to delete, etc. You can scroll the URL, too.

Are there ways to get the keyboard to have cursor keys, or something similar?

I use the Microsoft Swiftkey keyboard on Android, and there's a setting which makes holding the space button activate gestures for up/down/left/right. (i.e. hold space and move small amounts left/right.)

If you have enough screen space, I think you can add real arrow keys.

But I'm not sure you can change the keyboard on iOS.

Wow -- life-changing, thanks! On the native iOS keyboard, hold down spacebar and (without lifting your thumb) swipe left/right to "scroll around" within a text field (at least in the Chrome address bar, but presumably anywhere). Amazing that after 5+ years using iOS I'm still discovering these hidden but basic features...

I've been using SwiftKey on iOS for about half a decade, I think.

The native iOS keyboard also lets you move the cursor by long-pressing / 3d-pressing anywhere on the keyboard and then swiping slowly in any direction

I think if you swipe the spacebar it moves the caret

I don't think it's niche at all. Why else would the address field be editable then

Https existed before icon, it shows in url. What's the point of icon when it's already written before?

The icon is arguably more accessible to the casual user.

Hiding a important part of anyhting is not ok. It even comes while copy paste. This is also not a either or case, both can be shown same time.

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