278664 - Add a pref to make location bar keyboard modifiers consistent with all other shortcuts

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Address Bar, enhancement, P3)

Description

[David Tenser [:djst]]

Currently, the keyboard modifiers (Ctrl/Shift/Alt) in the location bar is not
consistent with the rest of the keyboard/mouse shortcuts. This is done by
design, to be compatible with IE. The current behavior is as follows:

* Ctrl+Enter: add "www." and ".com" to url
* Shift+Enter: add "www." and ".net" to url
* Ctrl+Shift+Enter: add "www." and ".org" to url
* Alt+Enter: open url in new tab, which can combine the above modifiers.

This is NOT a request to change these defaults, since they are there for a good
reason. However, for the increasing number of people using tabbed browsing, and
for the (probably) vast amount of users not using this IE feature/shortcut at
all, having a consistent UI across the browser would certainly make it easier to
use. For those users, an about:config pref should be added to make the keyboard
modifiers consistent with the rest of the UI, resulting in the following behavior:

* Shift+Enter: open the url in a new window.
* Ctrl+Enter: open the url in a new tab (background by default).
* Ctrl+Shift+Enter: open the url in a new tab (foreground by
default).
* Alt+Enter: save the url target.

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

This was WONTFIXED at bug 272161.

Comment 2

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

And bug 177498.

Regardless, I personnally don't see the harm in a "browser.urlbar.classicMode"
or similar pref. mconnor on the other hand I'm not so sure about ;). It's
certainly something I would be interested in implementing it if that is what's
wanted, but since this has been WONTFIXED before, I doubt there's going to be a
reversal of that decision at this point.

Comment 3

[David Tenser [:djst]]

Bug 272161 was specific to Ctrl+Enter, while this is for all keyboard modifiers.
mconnor, you asked in bug 272161 what makes this so unique. My opinion is that
this rfe would add consistency with the rest of the Firefox UI in terms of
tabbed browsing with keyboard modifiers.

After all, the current behavior (to add "www." and ".com") is a quirk for
IE-users which per design breaks consistency. Having the ability to achieve 100%
consistency is certainly not a bad thing. It could even be the default behavior
on Mac and Linux, since those OS:es don't use this IE-feature to add "www." and
".xxx".

Comment 4

[David Tenser [:djst]]

I forgot to cc you mconnor :)

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

well, I'm really not anxious to add prefs for this stuff... dynamic keybindings
is the real answer, and I don't want to have to carry around migration code for
those prefs if we'll have to morph those into keybindings, real messy.  Pref to
pref migration is simple, but replacing existing keybindings via a pref
migration is just going to suck.  And if we don't migrate the pref, we'll get
complaints too.  I think if we're doing a stopgap, someone needs to write an
extension to eat these keystrokes and allow rebinding these shortcuts, or just
do it automatically.  Doing it in core code is a no-go for now, IMO.

Ironically, I seem to recall a really really old bug about this inconsistency
where you linked mozillazine talkback to explain why we weren't going to fix it. :)

Comment 6

[David Tenser [:djst]]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Ironically, I seem to recall a really really old bug about this inconsistency
> where you linked mozillazine talkback to explain why we weren't going to fix
it. :)

That's true, but that bug was about changing the defaults, which is why I was
sure to point out that this bug is not about that. :)

If this is technically complicated to implement in the core, I haven'r really
thought about. I only filed the rfe to raise the key point: consistent UI should
be something to strive for. But perhaps not if it adds unwarranted complexity of
the code. To me personally, an extension would be enough. Maybe it's time to
start writing my own extensions. ;)

Feel free to do whatever you want with this rfe. I've had my say.

Comment 7

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Marking this WONTFIX based on mconnor's comment.

Comment 8

[Jesse Ruderman]

See also bug 237027.