199424 - Accel+W should close any window that has a close-window widget, unless it has more than one tab open

Status: NEW

(Core :: DOM: UI Events & Focus Handling, enhancement, P4)

Description

[Prognathous]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030325
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030325

Accel+W is the standatd shortcut for closing windows on MacOS and BeOS. This
shortcut is also becoming more common on Windows as a replacement for the
awkwardly placed Alt+F4 (see Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer).

In bug 133585 ("accel-W should close the chatzilla window"), Robert Ginda
mentioned that Ctrl-W is "backward delete word" on UNIX, so this shouldn't be
implemented under UNIX for windows with editing fields.

A few notes:
1. This bug is *not* a dupe of the above bug, what I'm asking here is a
universal keyboard shortcut for closing any window, not just Chatzilla's.
2. This bug is *not* invalid, for two reasons: 
  2a. It is needed. The current Windows shortcut (Alt+4) sucks (having to lift
your elbow just to close a window is crazy)
  2b. Accel+W doesn't collide with any other standrad shortcut.
  3b. Having two shortcuts that do the same thing is common in Mozilla. Typical
examples: Switch tabs (Accel+Shift+Tab/Accel+Tab and
Accel+PageUp/Accel+PageDown); Go to the address-bar (Alt+D and Accel+l); Find
Next in Find-as-you-type (F3/Shift+F3 and Accel+G/Shift+Accel+G). in most of
these cases, I actually use both options, depending on whether my right hand is
on the mouse or on the keyboard. Offering an additional shortcut would not be
accessive, it would be useful.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open the Download Manager (many other windows from the Tools menu also
display this problem under Windows)
2. Press Accel+W

Actual Results:  
Nothing happens.


Expected Results:  
The window should close.


The problem is most evident under Windows. Under the OS X version of Mozilla,
some of these windows are rendered as simple dialogs or as sheets (without a
close-window widget). In these cases, Esc works instead of Command+W. 
For windows don't have that widget, using Esc is also reasonable.

Prog.

Comment 1

[Prognathous]

That was meant to be "three reasons" and "2c" instead of "3b", oh well...

Prog.

Comment 2

[Torben]

Other related bugs: Bug 61011, Bug 129097, Bug 137325. Do not know wheter these
bugs block this or the other way around.

Comment 3

[Lewis Jardine]

This bug probably needs a new title.

Reason being, a tabbed browser window has a close window widget, but accel-w
doesn't (and shouldn't) close the whole entire window.

Another thing to consider is that accel-w (generally) dismisses a screen worth
of information, whereas alt-F4 dismisses an entire window's worth. In
chatzilla's case, therefore (if it was to close anything) it might be better to
close the current tab.

Also, setting shortcuts that are peculiar to mozilla and don't follow the
expected behaviour of the operating system generally lead to holy wars - look at
bug 52821, for instance.

Finally, using 1.3 on windows 2000, accel-w does close the download manager.

Comment 4

[Prognathous]

> This bug probably needs a new title.
> Reason being, a tabbed browser window has a close window widget, 
> but accel-w doesn't (and shouldn't) close the whole entire window.

I disagree. This is not a close-window widget, it's a close-tab widget. If you 
have any doubts, simply compare their location and shape. The two widgets are 
completely different on BeOS (orange square vs. |X|) and MacOS (red drop vs. 
|X|), while on Windows, the shape is indeed similar, but the location is 
different (a close-window widget is always placed on the top-right corner of 
the window)

> Another thing to consider is that accel-w (generally) dismisses a screen worth
> of information, whereas alt-F4 dismisses an entire window's worth. In
> chatzilla's case, therefore (if it was to close anything) it might be better 
> to close the current tab.

That's right, if any of the affected windows also displays information in child 
windows, Accel+W should close the child window like we do with tabs.

> Finally, using 1.3 on windows 2000, accel-w does close the download manager.

I also tried 1.3 on Win2k (SP3) but here the Download Manager doesn't close 
when I press Ctrl+w. The same goes for the following windows:

* Form Manager
* Cookie Manager
* Image Manager
* Manage popup permissions window
* Password Manager
* Javascript Debugger
* Switch Profiles window
* File bookmark

For some reason, Accel+W *is* implemented for several other windows (for 
instance, the Bookmark Manager and the History view).
I don't get this, where is the big difference? all of these windows have a 
close-window widget.

Oddly enough, many of these examples can be closed by pressing Esc, but since 
they don't look like dialogs, no-one will try that.

Prog.

Comment 5

[Prognathous]

Lewis Jardine,

Come to think about it, I do agree with your comment about the title.

So, Accel+W should close any window that has a close-window widget, unless it
has more than one tab open ...in which case, Accel+W should close the active tab.

Prog.

Comment 6

[Lewis Jardine]

For what it's worth, here's the bahaviour of mozilla 1.5b (2003082704/windows
XP) when accel-w is pressed. The behaviour is the same, whether classic or
modern theme is used.

<pre>
Download Manager         closes
Form Manager             doesn't
Cookie Manager           doesn't
Image Manager            doesn't
Popup Permissions Window doesn't
Password Manager         doesn't
Javascript Debugger      internal error :)
Switch Profiles Window   doesn't
File Bookmark            doesn't
Bookmark Manager         closes 
History                  closes 
Preferences window       doesn't
</pre>

Comment 7

[timeless]

err. 'no'.

Dialogs are dialogs.
Windows are windows.

Most managers are dialogs even though they should be replaced by windows.

What you see is mostly correct.

dialogs can be closed w/ cmd-. / escape.

Comment 8

[Prognathous]

In reply to bug 137325, comment 12:

Timeless, even Microsoft's own software isn't consistent in regards to Ctrl+W.
In Explorer this keybinding *closes* the window, but in Management Console it
*opens* one. Go figure.

IMHO, expecting users to guess when to use Esc and when to use Accel+W is
unreasonable. Wouldn't you consider a single, well laid out keybinding for
closing windows to be a step ahead of Microsoft's clumsy Alt+F4?

Prog.

Comment 9

[timeless]

no. part of the reason for alt-f4 is that it should require effort. if a window
has nothing of value then escape should work. if it has value then you should
have to consciously choose to close it. (don't worry, i get bugmail)

Comment 10

[Lewis Jardine]

In windows, isn't ESC a shortcut for 'press the cancel button'? 

I would be surprised by a window that closed when I pressed escape, if it didn't
have a cancel button.

AFAIK (and it has been a while since I used one), accel-w means 'close this
window', a window being defined as a single document (as per the mac's
'documents are windows, applications live in the menu bar' philosophy). Accel-w
seems to be quite a familiar shortcut to windows and mac users, but on the other
hand, it does mean other things in other applications 

As well as MMC, pico/nano uses it to mean 'search', presumably with a mnemonic
like 'Where is?'. (On the other hand, pico's shortcuts seem to be peculiar to
pico and pine, so can probably be discounted). I'm sure many other applications
use this to mean something else as well.

It could be argued, though, that throughout mozilla accel-w means the same as (I
think) it does on a mac, and thus a user would expect it to close a window (and
maybe even cancel a dialogue).

Comment 11

[[e-mail]]

Well we have some issues here...
Key	Function
Esc	Discard changes
Enter	Save changes
Accel+W	Prompt to save changes
I don't think we can go around adding Accel+W to modal dialogs, or even many
modeless dialogs, but there are definitely some windows such as Download Manager
and Advanced Message Search which should use Accel+W to close, but also some
dialogs, such as Cookie Manager, which already allow Esc or Enter to close, but
could additionally use Accel+W to close at the discretion of the module owner.

Comment 12

[Prognathous]

Neil, your comment reaffirms my view that this bug is valid. Confirming.

Prog.

Comment 13

[Aaron Leventhal]

*** Bug 137325 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 14

[Aaron Leventhal]

Neil, you want to take this one don't you? :)

Comment 15

[Prognathous]

In 1.8 (SeaMonkey 1.0), the Download Manager does close when pressing Ctrl+W. I hope this is a sign of things to come...

Prog.

Comment 16

[Chris Pepper]

Command-W (Mac) should also close the Thunderbird About window (which does have a red close button), but doesn't. 1.5.0.4 (20060530)

Comment 17

[Matthew Munoz]

Attachment: same problem

Thanks from jackpoordoova1979.