249764 - Accel+Number shortcuts for accessing specific tabs should be removed (no Ctrl+# or Cmd+# shortcuts in Firefox)

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Prognathous]

Here's my reasoning:

1. There are very few Accel shortcuts available. Creating a cross-platform
shortcut for extensions becomes very difficult. Accel+F# shortcuts don't work on
MacOS, Accel+Shift+A~D and Accel+Shift+0~9 don't work on Unix. Accel+Number
shortcuts, on the other hand, work on all platforms.

2. Accel+Number doesn't scale well - only the first 9 tabs are accessible with it.

3. There is no way to discover the existence of these shortcuts from the UI. The
Go menu doesn't include any reference to them.

4. It is very unlikely that users are actually *counting* tabs in order to use
this shortcut. It is much easier and quicker to use Accel+Tab/Accel+Shift+Tab or
Ctrl+PageUp/Ctrl+PageDown, but don't just take my word for it, do a simple
usability test and you'll see how ineffective Accel+Number is for handling more
than two or three tabs.

Timeless mentioned other reasons why Accel+Number should have a place in the
interface hall of shame, you can read about it here:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=139025#c11

Prog.

Comment 1

[Prognathous]

mconnor, please read commment 0 and decide the status of this bug. I'd confirm
it myself, but I don't feel it's appropriate in this case.

Prog.

Comment 2

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

I could take or leave this bug.  I don't think ANY Accel-# shortcuts are that
useful, but hey, that's my POV.  I can't think of anything else we'd use them
for, so its not like its constraining _us_, but that's about as far as I really
want to think forward about right now.

Certainly nothing to deal with at this moment in time.

Comment 3

[Prognathous]

(In reply to comment #2)
> I could take or leave this bug.  I don't think ANY Accel-# shortcuts are that
> useful, but hey, that's my POV.

Accel-# are part of a very small group of accelerators that are available on
Windows, OS X and Unix. That's why it's such a shame to give them up for rather
useless functionality.

>  I can't think of anything else we'd use them
> for, so its not like its constraining _us_,

It's constraining for extension authors. Take the BiDi UI extension for example,
the only reason why we've wasted Accel+Shift+X across Mozilla applications (a
useful shortcut for future stuff like "Cut Without Formatting") is because
Firefox already uses Accel-#.

> Certainly nothing to deal with at this moment in time.

Ok, then I guess you wouldn't object for confirming this bug to keep it on the
radar -> NEW.

Prog.

Comment 4

[MordEth]

Personally, I *STRONGLY* oppose considering this a bug; the main reason why I even found this bug report is because there is a problem with the Cmd+# behavior in the latest nightly builds.  If you open a page from a bookmark, afterwards, Cmd+# no longer selects that tab.

This is a feature that I use all the time, and while it may not be readily apparent, I know quite a few people who use this feature, either as Cmd+# on Mac or Ctrl+# on Windows/Linux.

Unless there's something worthwhile to replace these key-bindings with, you're merely proposing yanking a feature that a number of Firefox users use, for no good reason.  If it's a big problem for a small number of Windows users, make a preference (even if it's only in about:config) to turn it off.  In my opinion, the Cmd+# key-bindings are one of the main features that makes Firefox a better browser than Safari, on Mac OS X.

Comment 5

[James Teh [:Jamie]]

As a blind (and therefore keyboard only) user, I find ctrl+1-9 to switch to specific tabs extremely useful. It's true that you can keep hitting ctrl+tab, but this isn't efficient for any keyboard user and even less so if you use a screen reader and have to listen to the document title to determine which tab you're in. Granted, it's only useful for the first 9 tabs, but if you have more than 9 tabs open, you can move your tabs around such that the tabs you want to access quickly are within the first 9.

Comment 6

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to comment #0)
> 2. Accel+Number doesn't scale well - only the first 9 tabs are accessible with it.

And the last tab, see bug 338348.

Apparently this is a standard across various browsers too.

Resolving wontfix.