Closed Bug 154849 Opened 22 years ago Closed 18 years ago

pref for showing single tab is ignored

Categories

(SeaMonkey :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Product:
SeaMonkey
Component:
Tabbed Browser
Platform:
x86
Windows 98
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 156082

People

(Reporter: barrowma, Assigned: jag+mozilla)

References

Details

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:0.9.8+) Gecko/20020214
Netscape6/6.2.1+
BuildID:    20020628

If I have my pref set to show a single tab (rather than hide the tab UI when
only one tab is open), then click the X, the tab goes away.  This seems correct
to me.

However, if I open a new browser window, or restart the browser, I see no tab in
the new window.  This seems wrong to me - I would expect my prefs to remain as
they were before and the single tab should show.

Also, if I go to prefs, the "Hide the tab bar when only one tab is open" is
still unchecked.  If I check this pref, then exit prefs, then go back and
uncheck it, the desired behavior resumes: I see the single tab.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Ensure "Hide the tab bar when only one tab is open" pref is unchecked
2. Get to a one-tab state, then use the "X" to close that tab.  The tab will
disappear.


Actual Results:  1. Open a new window: You will see no tab UI.  Restart browser:
You will see no tab UI.
2. Check prefs: "Hide the tab bar when only one tab is open" will still be
unchecked.

Expected Results:  1. Any new window should respect the original pref - window
should come up the tab UI showing and a single tab open.
I'm also seeing this on the 6/27 Windows branch build.
Summary: pref for showing single tab is ignored → pref for showing single tab is ignored
> However, if I open a new browser window, or restart the browser, I see no tab
> in the new window.  This seems wrong to me - I would expect my prefs to remain
> as they were before and the single tab should show.

This is by design. The goal here was to give users an easy way to permanently
hide the tab bar (across sessions and effective on new window open within the
same session), so once you've hidden the tab bar by clicking the X, it shouldn't
come back until you open additional tabs or show it again through View ->
Show/Hide -> Tab Bar.

> Also, if I go to prefs, the "Hide the tab bar when only one tab is open" is
> still unchecked.  If I check this pref, then exit prefs, then go back and
> uncheck it, the desired behavior resumes: I see the single tab.

Closing the tab bar by clicking X or selecting View -> Show/Hide -> Tab Bar
isn't the same as changing the pref "Hide the tab bar when only one tab is open".

I could make it be the same thing, but I thought users familiar with this
preference wouldn't like us switching that pref on them when they hide/show the
tab bar. I tried that in an initial patch and it felt awkward to me (because in
that case after you hide the tab bar, open a second tab, and close it again, the
tab bar will automatically disappear instead of remain there until you yourself
hide it again).

Lori, Marlon, suggestions for improvement that may alleviate this confusion?
whoops, mid-air collision --i recommend that this be marked invalid, since it's
behaving consistently wrt the other items in that submenu

----

i think this is expected behavior.

if you look at the menu item, View > Show/Hide you'll notice that Tab Bar is
active (not greyed outand therefore toggle-able), yet does not have the
checkmark. i believe the pref basically keeps that menu item toggle-able.

as with other items in the Show/Hide submenu, if you turn it off (toggle it), it
will persist among new windows and btwn sessions.
Ok, I think I understand my confusion now - the difference between the pref and
the View menu item.  Why do we even have the pref, if the same behavior is
controlled globally via the View menu?  I think eliminating the pref UI would
reduce confusion.
The pref isn't quite the same. Turned on the tab bar with automatically hide
when you have one tab left. Turned off you can manually hide the tab bar with
the X or through the View -> Show/Hide -> Tab Bar menu item.
I personally think that the benefits of the existence of the pref do not
outweigh the confusion that the almost duplicate function of pref and View menu
item creates.

However, this bug should be resolved in some fashion.

Suggest either:

1. If the pref stays, change the current behaviour so that the pref *IS*
honoured in new windows / sessions.  I.e. only have the tab bar hidden in the
window in window in which the tab close button was used.

2. Remove the pref altogether.
Also note:

When I have multiple browser sessions running and, in one of them, I hit the
close button when there's only one tab left, it hides the tab bar - but ONLY in
that session.  It does NOT close the tab bar in the other navigator sessions. 
Thereby leading one to believe that separate sessions are actually separate. 
But if you open a new session you find that that one will not have the tab bar...

This just makes the behaviour even more inconsistent.  It should either close
the tab bar in every session, or it should have no effect on other sessions (new
sessions created after the tab bar closing) at all.  (See suggestion 2. in
comment 6.)
*** Bug 160671 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 163054 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
> > However, if I open a new browser window, or restart the browser, I see no tab
> > in the new window.  This seems wrong to me - I would expect my prefs to 
> > remain as they were before and the single tab should show.

> This is by design. The goal here was to give users an easy way to permanently
> hide the tab bar (across sessions and effective on new window open within the
> same session), so once you've hidden the tab bar by clicking the X, it 
> shouldn't come back until you open additional tabs or show it again through 
> View -> Show/Hide -> Tab Bar.

However this is not an intuitive extra feature.  You have overloaded a UI
element (Close Tab / Hide Tab Bar)  with fairly diffrent features.  As I said in
Bug 163054 hitting the 'Close Tab X' with one tab should either do nothing (my
prefered) or close the current tab and create a new tab at about:blank /
homepage with no existing history.

Sometimes you just hit the button one to many times, or you're like me getting
used to always middle clicking on a news site.  But this time you forgot and
loaded the page normally.
Argh! The "feature" is still in Moz 1.1 final. Is the pref due for removal in 1.2?
Suggestion:
If the preference "hide the tab bar when only one tab is open" is ENABLED, there
should be no button to close the tab - but only when no other tabs are open.
The close tab button is *on* the tab bar.  If the tab bar is hidden (when there
is only one tab), there can be no button visible.  This is already the case...
Ah. I meant disabled.
It should have read:

I have the preference "hide the tab bar when only one tab is open" disabled.
The simple solution would be to hide the close tab button when th last tab is open.

(Sorry about that)
*** Bug 165499 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
QA Contact: sairuh → pmac
*** Bug 175897 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 157338 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 176826 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 177839 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
The preference to "hide the tab bar when only one tab is open" serves no useful
purpose since it can be overriden outside of the Preferences area.

The preferences area is the definitive place to set options, apart from for this.

I vote the option be removed.
*** Bug 189754 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
It is not my expected behaviour that middle clicking the only open tab should
hide the bar. I would expect either the window to close or nothing to happen at
all. Making the behaviour depend on the number of tabs open seems a confusing
idea to me. When I middle click the tab I expect it to close the current tab and
thus when there is only one the window. I often mistakingly middle click the
single tab wanting to close it, but then find that I have to go into the View
menu to get back my tab bar before I exit in the conventional means. 

If i wanted to hide the tab bar when i have explicitly set the pref not to, i
would expect that i would have to go into the view menu to hide it. Ideally, and
I know most people won't like this, I would like to see a grippy on the tab bar. 

As regards to the Pref being removed, wouldn't it be possible to add a sub menu
to the View -> Show/Hide -> Tab Bar so that you can make this choice here along
the same lines as the Site Navigation sub menu.
> I would expect either the window to close or nothing to happen
> at all.

The first option is WONTFIX as per bug 153072, which leaves the option of
nothing happening at all.  I, now, far prefer nothing to happen to the current
changing of the UI I'd explictly set in the preference and/or View menu.  

Accidentally clicking on the close tab button when I have a single tab (I do
this sometimes, and am now convinced that the resolution to bug 153072 was
correct, despite me having filed it in the first place) is probably my biggest
pet peeve with Mozilla at the moment.  I never DO want the tab bar to go away,
otherwise I wouldn't have set my pref to always show it, and there's always a
lot of swearing and the need to open a new tab then immediately close it again
to get back the UI I want.

> I would like to see a grippy on the tab bar.

However that one gets resolved <grin>, I don't think it's applicable here since
we'd still have the same issue of the close tab button closing the tab bar. 
While having a grippie might offer some people a faster method of recovering
from the annoyance - the correct solution is to have the annoyance not happen in
the first place.

> wouldn't it be possible to add a sub menu to
> the View -> Show/Hide -> Tab Bar

I don't believe there should be that level of nested menus - too much clutter. 
Besides which, all of this should be a simple boolean preference, set in just
ONE place in the UI (either the pref *or* the View menu).  Either the tab bar is
always shown with a single tab or it isn't.  And "closing" a single tab should
have no effect on this.
*** Bug 201762 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 203829 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Coming from a person who just filed a dupe (sorry, guys), I really agree with
Jason. By unchecking the "hide" pref, I am wanting the tab bar to ALWAYS show. I
accidentally click that little X one too many times, and I'm always put off by
having to do the little routine of checking/unchecking/closing/opening/cursing, etc.

Consider this a vote for the little X do nothing if the "hide" pref is unchecked.
Actually, maybe we should take the hint from word processors and other similar
programs. You close the last child window and a new one based on the default
template shows up. So in our case, close the little X for the last tab and a new
tab with your homepage pref. shows up.
*** Bug 205626 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 207799 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 240231 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #27)
> Actually, maybe we should take the hint from word processors and other similar
> programs. You close the last child window and a new one based on the default
> template shows up. So in our case, close the little X for the last tab and a 
new
> tab with your homepage pref. shows up.

I'll second that - sounds like a good idea.

(In reply to comment #31)
> (In reply to comment #27)
> > You close the last child window and a new one based on the default
> > template shows up. So in our case, close the little X for the last
> > tab and a new tab with your homepage pref. shows up.
> 
> I'll second that - sounds like a good idea.

I like that idea, too.
I like that too.  (Although I would like any solution that doesn't make the
close tab button disappear - but this one makes sense.)
(In reply to comment #27)
> Actually, maybe we should take the hint from word processors and other similar
> programs. You close the last child window and a new one based on the default
> template shows up. So in our case, close the little X for the last tab and a new
> tab with your homepage pref. shows up.

The problem with this is that people who browse with lots of tabs have a
tendency to overdo it when quickly closing a lot of them. Most of the time you
need the first tab to remain at that URL, as you probably want to open a new
bunch of tabs branching out from this original one. I hope I managed to make
myself clear on this :).
This is fixed for FF (see bug 156082 comment 57), so I see no need for two bugs about this issue. So I dupe to bug 156082. 

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 156082 ***
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 18 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
Product: Core → SeaMonkey
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