topic/question: navigating through submenu items with right and left arrows (outlying conditions)

Good day everyone, I have a couple related question on the topic of navigating through submenu items with the right and left arrow keys, and it relates to the key mapping in the documentation here:  https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/menus/application-menus/#submenu-items

right →
Close the submenu, select the first item of the next top-level menu item.
left ←
Close the submenu, select the first item of the previous top-level menu item.
For ease of communicating, I am using this application menu<https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/menus/application-menus-code/#main> in the W3 documentation as an example. While I understand what to do when there is a next or previous top-level menu item, when the conditions aren't met for a next or previous top-level menu item with a child menu present, the example menu does not behave as I might expect.

Scenario A:  If my focus is on "New" under "File" and I press the left arrow key, "View" gets the focus. Because the documentation says "select the first item of the previous top-level menu item", shouldn't the first item under "View (which is the item "100%") get the focus and the "View" submenu expanded?  My instincts tell me that either "File" should get the focus because you're going up one level to the parent, or "View" should be expanded and the first item under "View" gets the focus.

Scenario B:  If my focus is on the submenu item "100%" under "View" and I press the right arrow key, "File" gets the focus. Similarly to Scenario A, my instincts are expecting the top-level item "Help" to get the focus, or that "File" should be expanded and the first submenu item ("New") gets the focus.

Are my instincts wrong and the behavior of the example menu correct?  Or is it possible that under these two scenarios that the example menu is not behaving correctly?

Your thoughts are much appreciated.  Thank you!

Warmest regards,
Michael






Michael Tangen

Senior Interface Designer/Developer | Web Development