SUMMARY The Tab key behaviour with the Automatic and Short Automatic completion options does not work as expected, moving the focus from the editable location bar, rather than completing the path. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Start typing an existing path and be presented with the with some faded completion text, e.g. using '/usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org' will present either the first sub-directory ('org.kde.desktopcontainment' for me) for Automatic completion or the shortened common path ('org.kde.') for Short Automatic completion. 2. Press the Tab key to accept the completion. OBSERVED RESULT Pressing the Tab key completes the path entry as per the completion, but moves the focus from the location bar. EXPECTED RESULT Pressing the Tab key completes the path entry as per the completion and the focus stays in the location bar. A subsequent press of the Tab key would then move the focus out of the location bar. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Linux/KDE Plasma: KDE neon 5.19 KDE Plasma Version: 5.19.3 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.72.0 Qt Version: 5.14.2 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION It is still possible to use the End key here, but this requires more movement away from the home row when typing than using the Tab key does. My expectation for what happens here comes from a combination of familiarity with shell-style completion and previous use of Nautilus for some of the path editing behaviour (the behaviour is consistent in other GTK based file managers as well).
How is this different from Bug 424991?
This differs from Bug 424991 in that it's related to the Tab key behaviour as it relates to the Automatic/Short Automatic completion and after looking at the issue reporting page (https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved/Issue_Reporting#One_issue_per_Bugzilla_ticket) I realised that the issues seemed different enough that they should be separated.
I think my question is the same for both, though: if the tab key is changed to trigger autocompletion rather than moving the keyboard focus, then how would do you move the keyboard focus using the keyboard?
I left a comment on Bug 424991 since I think there would be more usability issues for that one. For this one however, I would expect that the idea of a second press of the Tab key would complete the faded completion text and then in the absence of additional completion, the focus should move out of the field. Using the Steps to Reproduce example path, this would mean that using '/usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org' for Automatic completion, the path would become '/usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.desktopcontainment' and pressing Tab after that would move the focus. For Short Automatic completion I'd expect the path to be '/usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.' and then pressing Tab would again, move the focus.
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New information was added with comment 4; changing status for inspection.