Question title says it all: why wouldn't scrolling the mousewheel scroll the input left or right when the mouse is on a single line field with content that exceeds its width? Now whenever I want to scroll I usually end up selecting text and trying in vain to keep some control while I drag left or right, invariably overshooting my target. The mousewheel isn't being used for anything here so why not let that scroll left-right in this case?
Mousewheels with left-right buttons obviously resolve the need for this but they haven't really become commonplace from what I've seen and most users (including yours truly) forget they even have them. I just discovered that middle-mouse button click and drag will work on this page but that's not an option in standard input fields.
The only reasons I can think of:
- up-down might not translate to left-right in all cultures so no standard experience could be decided, or
- users will be confused because they can't scroll the page/window up and down while hovering over such a field. Multi-line text areas have scroll-bars to tip user off but no such indicator (currently) exists
So, are there arguments against this that I'm not seeing? Was this ever proposed before (and then presumably shot down)?