1895039 - Firefox does not display background color in option tags on Firefox Ubuntu

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1406865

(Core :: Layout: Form Controls, defect)

Description

[James Cobban]

Attachment: Screenshot from 2024-04-19 00-59-44.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:125.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/125.0

Steps to reproduce:

I have created a minimum page demonstrating the problem at:

https://www.jamescobban.net/FamilyTree/testselect.html

This page displays correctly on Chromium Version 123.0.6312.122 (Official Build) snap (64-bit) but not on Firefox 125.0 Snap for Ubuntu

Actual results:

I tried to attach screenshots showing that the requested background colours are displayed on Chromium, but not on Firefox. But the file upload dialog on Ubuntu would not permit me to select multiple files. So I have put the images up on the Web

https://www.jamescobban.net/FamilyTree/Screenshot%20from%202024-04-19%2000-59-44.png

https://www.jamescobban.net/FamilyTree/Screenshot%20from%202024-04-19%2001-01-36.png

Expected results:

I do not care if the colours are not perfect. I just want to have more than just the word "Brown" to tell my clients that selecting that item will get BROWN!

I have not got any help from https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1445267 because apparently it is unusual to use Firefox on anything other then WINDOZE.

I reported this problem over a year ago and I am frustrated that nobody seems to have the time to look at this problem.

Comment 1

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

This is a known decision, see bug 1406865. It's behind a pref which is dom.forms.select.customstyling in about:config.

Comment 2

[James Cobban]

How can this be resolved if users of Firefox on Windows can use styling but users on Ubuntu Linux CANNOT? I cannot see a DECISION anywhere in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1406865. Please explain why Chrome is able to support this but Firefox is not. SHOW ME THE DECISION AND ITS JUSTIFICATION. Do not tell users to shut up and stop whining!

Comment 3

[Alice0775 White]

setting dom.forms.select.customstyling to true seems to work around.

Comment 4

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

(In reply to James Cobban from comment #2)

How can this be resolved if users of Firefox on Windows can use styling but users on Ubuntu Linux CANNOT? I cannot see a DECISION anywhere in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1406865. Please explain why Chrome is able to support this but Firefox is not. SHOW ME THE DECISION AND ITS JUSTIFICATION. Do not tell users to shut up and stop whining!

Nobody told you to stop whining. There's lots of context in the duplicate bug and linked bugs from there, but I can summarise.

The main reasoning is that we try to use system theme colours for unstyled select on Linux, and Linux has tons of theme variability, so it's hard to guarantee contrast if you just blindly apply the user colours to options. That, plus no browser on macOS doing it either.

With some effort it might be feasible to enable, but someone needs to make sure to fix the tests and test on a really wide range of gtk themes.

Finally there's work ongoing on a more styleable select which would address this and other stuff, see https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/10316

Comment 5

[James Cobban]

Thank you. But what does any of that have to do with this issue? I am not asking for "system theme colours". This is not an "unstyled select" so it still seems that you are trying to get me to drop this criticism of your beloved project. I am specifying the RGB colours that I want. I deliberately chose them from the 64 most universally supported colours. If there is a contrast problem in my menu, that is MY PROBLEM, not Mozilla's. I have asked the browser to display specific colours for both the text and the background, and YOU HAVE IGNORED THOSE SPECIFICATIONS if I happen to be running the browser on Linux. Firefox has a hell of a lot of nerve ignoring explicit instructions from the web designer. What LAW would you be violating if you honoured the request from the web designer? On what grounds could you be thrown in jail because you honoured the request? What financial or other penalties would you and Mozilla face if you just DID what you were asked to do by the web page?

I have been reporting this problem for OVER TWO YEARS and Mozilla is extremely ARROGANT to put your own opinions above the interests of your clients! I no longer have any patience with your decision making process, and I am now DEMANDING that Mozilla identify publicly TODAY the exact release in which this issue will no longer be a problem.

Show me the official DECISION, not some personal interpretation of the decision. I want to know the NAMES of the inconsiderate decision makers (I spent several minutes trying to find a non-pejorative description for people who have so insulted me and the other users who have raised this issue) who have left this issue unresolved for YEARS. I want their PERSONAL explanation for treating users of Firefox on Linux in such an unprofessional way.

Remember that, as a web site designer I have absolutely no control over which browsers or operating systems my customers use. I have to assume that any professional browser will implement the published standards, not put its private interests first. Who do you think you are, Micro$oft?

I probably have more personal experience in this area than any of the individuals who are passing judgment on this issue. When I first started I used NCSA Mosaic in 1992 to access web pages that I designed and deployed on an NCSA httpd server running on Solaris. My second page even used the Common Gateway Interface to permit a C++ program to implement complex server functionality. So I predate even Netscape. I demand to be treated with the respect due to someone with that great depth of experience.

Comment 6

[James Cobban]

(In reply to Alice0775 White from comment #3)

setting dom.forms.select.customstyling to true seems to work around.

The problem is that I do not have access to the browsers of my customers. I cannot demand that they flick some secret switch deep in the bowels of Firefox just because MOZILLA refuses to address this issue for all users of Firefox.

Comment 7

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

(In reply to James Cobban from comment #5)

Thank you. But what does any of that have to do with this issue? I am not asking for "system theme colours".

Sure, if you specify all the colors, it's all good. But there are colors that you can't specify using CSS (like the hovered option color and background), and Firefox needs to deal with the fact that some pages will only override some colors, and still do something reasonable.

If you do <select style="color: blue">, and you're on Ubuntu with the default theme, then it kinda works for the developer, but if another user has a blue theme color the text may become unreadable. See bug 1338283 for context. Now we might have better mitigations for that but someone still needs to go do the work and the testing.

Comment 8

[James Cobban]

I have been asking for for over TWO YEARS "Why can Chrome display these styles but Firefox cannot?"

What do I have to do to get options to display using the style attributes I have defined? Note that I have NO control over my clients' browsers or which operating system they have chosen to run, so telling me to activate SECRET options of Firefox is not an acceptable answer.

If the people in charge of this aspect of Firefox have a reason why they CANNOT support style on <option> then please explain it. I am not interested in opinions, even educated opinions. I want REASONS for this implementation deficiency. Otherwise I want Steve Teixeira to explain why he has not directed his staff to fix this problem, or Carlos Torres to explain why it would be illegal for Mozilla to fix this deficiency.

Comment 9

[James Cobban]

(In reply to Emilio Cobos Álvarez (:emilio) from comment #7)

(In reply to James Cobban from comment #5)
If you do <select style="color: blue">, and you're on Ubuntu with the default theme, then it kinda works for the developer, but if another user has a blue theme color the text may become unreadable.

Please actually look at www.jamescobban.net/testselect.html rather than making ASSUMPTIONS about it. Explain to me WHY that specific HTML and CSS is rejected. I am not saying style="color: blue" I am saying <option value="blue" style="color: #FFFF00; background: #0000FF">. Please explain to me the REASONS, not opinions, why Mozilla does not implement this.

I have been raising this issue for over two years and I am losing my patience.

If you cannot help me on this bug report then give me an address where I can communicate with the powers that be at Mozilla. The page https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contact/ does not indicate how to complain when Mozilla is not satisfying their MANIFESTO! I cannot find a surface mail address, or any e-mail addresses, and I have never been on "the social network formerly known as Twitter until an asshole took over".