Closed Bug 1497710 Opened 6 years ago Closed 5 years ago

Add preference to focus left tab when tab is closed

Categories

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, enhancement, P5)

63 Branch
enhancement

Tracking

()

RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: katie, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

Attachments

(1 file)

Currently, when a tab is closed, if it is not the first or last tab in the window, then the next tab always gets focused (assuming it has no owner or "browser.tabs.selectOwnerOnClose" is false).

This means that for a user that has the following preferences set:
browser.tabs.loadInBackground = false
browser.tabs.selectOwnerOnClose = false
browser.tabs.insertAfterCurrent = true

it is reasonable to assume that pressing Ctrl-T will open a new tab after the current one, and pressing Ctrl-W will close the new tab and focus the original tab again. However, there is no setting to enable this.

There are several extensions that claim to do this, but all of them are reactionary - they focus the tab to the left after the tab to the right has been auto-selected, resulting in an annoying flash. Most of them also have issues selecting hidden tabs as well.

I propose a new preference, browser.tabs.selectTabBeforeOnClose. When set, this alters the behavior of _gBrowser._findTabToBlurTo to swap the direction that it searches for tabs in.

I have attached a patch against the source of Firefox 63.0b12.
Priority: -- → P5
See Also: → 1455264
Blocks: 1438499
Blocks: 1459402
No longer blocks: 1438499

I want to point out that the tab successor API is sufficient to implement the desired functionality in a way that the correct tab is selected directly after closing a tab. In fact, I have done that and tested it privately for some time and it seems to work for me. I now submitted it for public listing; it should appear on AMO shortly. I will post the URL here as soon as that happens.

(In reply to Yuri Khan from comment #1)

I want to point out that the tab successor API is sufficient to implement the desired functionality in a way that the correct tab is selected directly after closing a tab. In fact, I have done that and tested it privately for some time and it seems to work for me. I now submitted it for public listing; it should appear on AMO shortly. I will post the URL here as soon as that happens.

Thanks, closing this as wontfix then.

Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 5 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
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