The toolbar button does not address this bug.  It does not manage pages
as a stack.  I think it is based upon some web-browser user interface
work that displayed the title of recently visited pages in a drop down
list, based upon when the page was viewed.  This is a reasonable way to
present a browser history.

However, under evince, the drop down menu often displays page numbers,
since pages in pdf files do not have titles.  Worse, the list is
presented in a mysterious order.  Surely, any user interface that
requires the user to remember which page or chapter contained a
previously clicked link is broken.

Regardless of whether the current evince behavior is "better" than
standard web browser interfaces (see upstream bug), gnome should
standardize on a single browsing paradigm, and Nautilus provides a
reasonable user interface.  However, nautilus provides a breadcrumb bar,
and it's not clear that a breadcrumb bar would be useful with evince; in
practice, it would contain a bunch of page numbers or section headings.

The current situation introduces a non-standard set of navigation
primitives, and still (after 4 years) does not support alt-left.  Also,
using the mouse to navigate backwards in this UI is awkward.  In the
best case, following a link backwards requires two mouse clicks.
However, after you have clicked a few links, you have to search for the
link (page number) you want in an apparently randomized list.

There was some debate over the correct semantics for a back button
upstream a few years ago.  Xpdf only pushes things onto the stack when
links are clicked; it does exactly what a web browser does.  This seems
like the right approach.  Also, the debate over web browser back button
user interfaces has evolved a bit since this bug was filed.  Perhaps the
current 'back' toolbar button could be replaced with one that clones
firefox's interface.

-- 
Improving navigation in large documents
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/20871
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