Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2021 February 14

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February 14

Stop Google Chrome from scrolling the editing box when I press enter

I have tried asking this all over the place, and never gotten much of a response. When I am editing Wikipedia, Chrome has some weird annoying feature that is horrendously annoying. This happens with any multiline text box that has enough text to generate a scroll bar on the right side. Usually, but not always, when I press the enter key, the textbox will scroll so that the new line is at the very top of the text box, rather than the text box staying where it is and the new line pushing the text down under it (as is the behaviour of every single other text box ever in the history of computing).

I've used Chrome for years, but this behaviour has only been happening on my computer and only with Chrome for several months. How do I stop text boxes from scrolling when I press enter? Pretty sure I'm up to date with v88.0.4324.150 - Floydian ^τ _¢ 16:09, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

Floydian, are you using the WP:Visual editor? If not, have you tried it?

Does the behavior occur on other computers you use? Elizium23 (talk) 04:35, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Also, for clarity, it only happens on Wikipedia? Not text boxes on other sites? Try opening an incognito window and editing a Wikipedia page. Does it still happen? --47.152.93.24 (talk) 15:01, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

We concur with the incognito suggestion, and we will take it one step further by suggesting you disable any "Gadgets" in your preferences, and erase your common.js of user scripts. Elizium23 (talk) 15:44, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Alright, so I've tried incognito and the problem persists. It also happens on my girlfriends computer, logged in or out. The issue goes away if I enable New wikitext mode in beta features, or if I use the visual editor. However, I've got nearly two decades of using the plaintext editor to code non-breaking spaces and links, and both get rid of the CharInsert extension that I use often.

I'm trying to find a website with a similar plain multiline text box to Wikipedia. Most websites seem to use something similar to the visual editor that is script based and exhibits different behaviour... so at this point, for me, the problem is confined to Wikipedia, but not necessarily inherent to Wikipedia. - Floydian ^τ _¢ 21:01, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Actually, you can insert special characters in the Visual Editor and wikitext mode alike. Pull down the menu marked with "Ω". I think it's an improvement.

Have you tried the WP:Reply-link extension? It has simple text boxes. Elizium23 (talk) 01:32, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Floydian, I would advise a couple other places you could post and receive more help. @WhatamIdoing: is WMF and a technical guy, knows lots of stuff. Also, the Village Pump (technical) is a good central place where people know stuff on enwiki. Beyond that even, there must be someplace on meta.wiki that you could post a question. I know they have a Visual Editor help forum there. I don't know if they care too much about supporting the legacy textbox editor. Your mileage may vary. Elizium23 (talk) 01:36, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

@Floydian, does this still happen in mw:safemode? If so, then it's probably not a problem in your account, and I think I'd check your browser extensions next. (Please ping me.) Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:59, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

@Whatamidoing (WMF): - No change in safe mode, no change after disabling all my extensions. I'm pretty sure that if I load up a page to edit in incognito mode, I'm no longer dealing with monobook or the legacy editor, but what any IP editor would see... yet it still happens. - Floydian ^τ _¢ 04:48, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

@Floydian, this is kind of a strange idea, but do you get this problem if you change the size of your browser window? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:27, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

@Whatamidoing (WMF): - A novel thought since I always edit full-screen, but alas, no change. I'm cleaning the dust off Firefox now because I'm getting the feeling that it is something in Chrome itself that doesn't like plain textboxes. I've tried 4 different laptops, logged in, logged out and incognito, and it happens on all of them in every scenario. - Floydian ^τ _¢ 19:25, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

How strange. Well, I hate to say this, but I think we need to send you over to WP:VPT, where you can find a broader set of people with skills. I'm not sure what else to recommend to you. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:20, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

I'll give that a shot. Thank you regardless! - Floydian ^τ _¢ 16:40, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

Technical differences between Hulu/Netflix and Youtube/Vimeo

I'm trying to understand the difference between "streaming", DRM-protected services like Hulu or Netflix, that won't let you download+save their stuff easily on the one hand. And, on the other hand, Youtube or Vimeo where you download to view and can create a link (with an appropriate tool) to download the video. What makes the first two so difficult to save into a file? Is the difference streaming vs downloading just a fancy way of referring to images coming your way? Could Youtube/Vimeo DRM-protect their videos, but still let anonymous user view them? Do they buffer/cache in a different way/ --Bumptump (talk) 21:05, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

Look into Widevine, High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection, and Digital rights management. Youtube streams the video to you in chunks like Netflix, but doesn't use DRM. WhoAteMyButter (📨│📝) 05:48, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

YouTube relies on its Terms of Service to prohibit people from using third-party software to download the streaming-only videos.

Some YouTube videos are available as a free download. Many others are available to download when you subscribe to a paid YouTube service. I think that's more than fair. Elizium23 (talk) 06:13, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

And Netflix (and Disney+) do let you save some of their shows on their apps. In fact, I think all the stuff on Disney+ is downloadable. Not as freely moveable files on your computer, though; more like locally cached files that you can watch later if your connection is slow or whatever. Matt Deres (talk) 01:49, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Technically all of the aforementioned "download" videos to your computer one way or another, and all of the content is manipulated to prevent you from accessing it at will. This is because they all want to be able to pull the plug on your downloaded content whenever the contract requires or when they find it profitable. All of these manipulation methods (whether called DRM or not) are regularly circumvented by pirates. The difference is in whether the circumvention methods are available to the public as programs/websites. Elephas X. Maximus (talk) 00:50, 22 February 2021 (UTC)