huwyngr wrote:Although this Forum reply editor does have some singularities -- and is due to be replaced some time soon I hope -- I have not experienced what you refer to as backspacing or line feed problems.
It does do only one line feed when you hit ENTER although I am used to two to give a space between paragraphs I've not had anything like you describe. I do have some problems with things not happening: focus moving outside the frame so although the flashing cursor is inside nothing you type appears and CTRL +V not pasteing although the Context Menu Paste works.
All of which leads me to wonder if your installation on your laptop is corrupted or infected?
It might be a good idea to run Malwarebytes and/or Superantispyware free versions which run only on demand and not in the background and see if you have picked up some malware.
I often (not consistently though) have an intermittent similar problem. In my case, what it does, is that when I type a space and then type a letter, the space disappears (I suppose one could call it "backspacing") so that all the words run together. This only happens at the last character of any given line or possibly paragraph, and of course while you're typing, you're always at the last character. It does not happen in the middle of lines of already-typed text. Simulated: wordsruntogetherbecausethespacekeepsdisappearing.
My workaround, when the forum decides to do that, is to use the mouse and move the cursor back a few characters, then type a space in the middle of a string of words (the forum will allow a space in the middle of a line, just not at the end of a line when it's acting up) - and then just type whatever I'm trying to type, in the little "gap" that I created, and just let the extra characters at the end of the line float there until I'm finished with the post, then delete the extra characters. (Hard to describe, but easy to do.) Or another workaround is type everything in Notepad and copy/paste but then one has to go back and add the smileys, italics, etc.
I've been trying to pay attention, to see if there's something specific thing that I've done that might trigger the behavior, but I haven't noticed a pattern yet. I do tend to delete things (intentionally) sometimes, and do copy/paste/italic/bold/smileys etc a lot, but I can't tell if that has anything to do with it. Heh, I also type pretty fast sometimes - maybe the forum software just gets confuzzled. 
Focus problem:
I have not had exactly the focus problem you mentioned, although sometimes when I delete something that's above already-existing text, the cursor will disappear entirely - I suppose that's a focus problem? because I have to click inside the editor window to be able to type again (or paste), but it's slightly different from what you related because in your case you said you could still see the flashing cursor, whereas in my case the cursor disappears. It doesn't always do that though. Other times the cursor jumps to a nearby, but unexpected, location. (That latter part reminds me of a common complaint that people have had in the past with regards to an app called Notepad++ about the cursor going to an unexpected location after deleting some text... I wonder if there is some common/similar code there, between that app and the forum software?? Probably not... just guessing)
Anyway, the disappearing-spaces ("backspaces") at last-character are an interesting phenomenom that I haven't seen anywhere else. I wish it was more consistent because it would be easier to figure out... posting things here is an interesting technical challenge in itself sometimes.
Far as I can tell, there isn't anything wrong with my computer. It's a fairly fresh OS install from original factory Windows installer DVD (OEM, but legit nevertheless). It's been running pretty good 
and I've no reason to suspect having any malware - and believe me, I'm suspicious of just about everything these days. Nevertheless, as a preventative, I've been doing the usual safe-mode scans with NIS 2009 and MBAM, and they never have anything to report (nothing bad found).
I'd bet money it's a forum bug/error/whatever.
Darnit, it just started doing the missing spaces again, and I deleted the whole line and - well now it's back to normal - huh...
Now this is weird - I don't recall seeing this before (maybe it was there and I didn't notice):
As I'm replying to huwyngr's post, there is a bunch of HTML code below his name, in the left-hand column. It's only visible when I'm replying, not when just viewing posts.
And the HTML-thing seems to be for only huwyngr's name where that happens, but only when replying! I just hit "reply" to some other people's posts, to see if they had HTML code there too on the reply page, but they didn't (I closed those pages without actually replying). So is that another forum bug that affects only some members, or is there something about huwyngr's data that causes the HTML code to appear below his name but *only* when someone's actively replying to one of his posts? Very strange.
Below I will try to replicate the HTML code I'm seeing... hmmm, the forum doesn't seem to want to allow that... well then will try "Edit As HTML", maybe that'll work, or not:
Super Phishing
Phryer<br><font
color="#0000cc">
<b>Guru</b></font>
Posts: 3250
Registered:
04-13-2008
Since that probably won't display right, 
here's a screenshot, cropped, pink frame added at lower left:
I suppose I should go log off and try it in IE 7, see if the same HTML code shows up in IE.
_______
- Firefox 3.0.6, Win XP Pro SP2
- older Dell 2.4 GHz P2, 2 GB RAM
[edit: retitled thread.]