Upon visiting the following public page: , you may have noticed a menubar. However, when you refresh the page by hitting F5, the menu in that bar disappears on Firefox browsers (versions 3-7). The same happens if you navigate to the page using the Back-button. Interestingly, if you press Ctrl-F5, the menubar reappears.
In typical web development practice, all JavaScript events triggered during the initial page load or any AJAX requests should also be fired when refreshing the page using F5 or when returning to it through the Back-button. This behavior raises the question - why are there differences in how the browser handles a standard refresh (F5) versus a hard refresh (Ctrl-F5)?
From a programmer's perspective, understanding the distinction between F5 and Ctrl-F5 is essential, not just limited to this specific case but more broadly applicable. It prompts an exploration of how browsers cache resources and handle page reloads, shedding light on potential bugs or inconsistencies in behaviors such as those observed in Firefox.