112380 - Bind Ctrl+F6/Ctrl+Shift+F6 to next/prev tab

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Core :: DOM: UI Events & Focus Handling, enhancement)

Description

[Olivier Mengué]

Ctrl+F6 and Ctrl+Shift+F6 are the standard Windows key to navigate between
documents in MDI (Multiple Document Interface) applications.
Theese keys are assigned by the system and are always active in MDI if the
developper doesn't override them.

You can verify this in Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, Developer Studio) or
in Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The Ctrl+F4 is the standard key to close an MDI window.

Theese keys should appear in violet at
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ui/accessibility/mozkeylist.html.

In the browser of Mozilla 0.9.6 (build 2001112009) :
- Ctrl+F4 is binded to close the active tab. It's OK for me.
- Ctrl+F6 and Ctrl+Shift+F6 are not binded.

I propose to bind Ctrl+F6/Ctrl+Shift+F6 to next/prev tab.

Comment 1

[Olivier Mengué]

Added keyword 'access' as theese keys may be used be accessibility software.

See also bug 102711 that deals about the F6 key (without control) to navigate
between frames.

Comment 2

[David Majda]

Possibly bind Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab for switching between tabs too? On
Windows, this is standard in tabbed windows (like some property dialogs) and it
works in Delphi multiple-edit-windows-implementation too.

Comment 3

[Olivier Mengué]

Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab are fine for me.
But this bug is here to be sure that Ctrl+F6 and Ctrl+Shift+F6 will be binded too.

Comment 4

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

ctrl-tab and ctrl-shift-tab switch frames.

ctrl-pgup and ctrl-pgdown switch tabs.

doing ctrl-f6 and ctrl-shift-f6 for tabs too sounds fine as long as it's
windows-only.  No polluting the f-keys on MacOS.

Comment 5

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

->bryner?

Comment 6

[timeless]

i'm currently opposed to this.  MDI is not Tabs, and abuse of F6 has resulted 
in a lot of confusion.  see also bug 109763 and various other bugs where i've 
described the nc4 behavior of f6.

ctrl+f6 is actually harder to use than ctrl+pagedown/pageup.  And reserving f6 
for some other purpose such as window switching might be advantageous.

As bz noted this should not be done for macos.

Comment 7

[timeless]

i'm currently opposed to this.  MDI is not Tabs, and abuse of F6 has resulted 
in a lot of confusion.  see also bug 109763 and various other bugs where i've 
described the nc4 behavior of f6.

ctrl+f6 is actually harder to use than ctrl+pagedown/pageup.  And reserving f6 
for some other purpose such as window switching might be advantageous.

As bz noted this should not be done for macos.

Comment 8

[Aaron Leventhal]

I agree with timeless - I beleive this is overkill and even a bit awkward.

Let's stick with the plan at 
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ui/accessibility/newnav.html

Comment 9

[timeless]

vrfy wontfix.

Comment 10

[David Hyatt]

I agree as well.

Comment 11

[Olivier Mengué]

timeless: you wrote that MDI is not tabs.

I disagree because each tab contains a document. So we can say that Mozilla with
tabs HAS a Multiple Document Interface.
So Ctrl+F6/Ctrl+Shift+F6 are appropriate.