310735 - Command (cmd) click on tabs to close does not work

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Jonathan Louie]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20051001 Firefox/1.6a1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20051001 Firefox/1.6a1

Command/middle clicking on a link opens the link in a new tab, as expected, but
on Windows you can middle click on a tab to close it.  Command/middle clicking
on a tab on Mac OS merely selects the tab.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open a new tab
2. Command/middle click the tab
3. Notice that it doesn't close

Actual Results:  
Tab is selected.

Expected Results:  
Tab should close.

Comment 1

[Jesse Ruderman]

Camino decided against this in bug 181176, but Firefox doesn't have to match Camino.

Comment 2

[Jonathan Louie]

I just switched my mouse settings to send middle click rather than command
click, and it seems that middle click (button 3 click) is working to close tabs.
 Updating summary.

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20051003
Firefox/1.6a1

Comment 3

[Andy Chan]

I support this behaviour and actually came here to file this exact request with
bugzilla. On my iBook I don't always have room to plug in a mouse. Here is the
typical situation I am in when browsing: my left hand is resting away from the
keyboard, and I am using the fingers on my right hand to browse due to the two
finger scrolling feature. If I want to close a tab, browsing either MUST become
a two handed experience, as I must use my left hand to hit W (for Cmd-W), or
requires moving the cursor away from my browser window, hitting a tiny tiny X in
an arbritrary location on the screen (and never along a screen edge), and then
moving the cursor back to the browsing window in order to scroll.

If this were implemented, I would still have to move the cursor to the current
tab in order to close it but I would be able to hit command and the mouse button
with one hand.

I think this lack of functionality only really hurts mac laptop users because in
most situtations a user has two mouse buttons at their disposal (ergo a
simulated third mouse button).

Comment 4

[Jonathan Louie]

Still broken:
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9b4) Gecko/2008030317 Firefox/3.0b4

Comment 5

[orion.mozilla]

Yet another long-standing bug that the developers have yet to respond to.  My best work-around is to configure the extension Tab Mix Plus for this functionality, but it behaves differently in the sense that it "activates" the tab before closing it.  This may cause the browser to go to a different tab when it is used.

Comment 6

[orion.mozilla]

I noticed that this bug is marked as "PowerPC Mac OS X".  I've been experiencing this on an Intel Core2Duo MacBook.  Perhaps updating this to reflect that it is a general Mac bug might help get the attention of Firefox developers.

Comment 7

[Jonathan Louie]

Still broken:  Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20091221 Firefox/3.5.7

Comment 8

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

Why we should close a tab with Cmd+Click? I don't see any other application which is doing that. Do you have examples?

Just add uiwanted so we can get feedback from the UX team on it.

Comment 9

[Jonathan Louie]

I seem to recall this working on Windows with the control or alt key, but it doesn't anymore.  I guess this would just be a nice shortcut for Mac users with only one button mouse or trackpad.

Comment 10

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

I've never been much for the argument in comment 3, which IMO does not trump the idea Henrik notes in comment 8 that *every single other instance of Command-click on Mac OS* in *every single application ever written* has a "create" behaviour, and this sole exception would have a "destroy" behaviour, which is totally the opposite of user expectation. (It's also why I don't like middle-click-to-close, since middle-click and Command-click are synonymous pretty much everywhere else.)

It certainly doesn't seem like a behaviour that Firefox would want only one one branch, so kicking to "unspecified" and marking UNCONFIRMED, since that's what this should have been filed as in the first place.

Comment 11

[sixtyfooters]

Would it be possible to put something in the preferences so that users can choose whether they want this feature?  I agree with <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=310735#c10">Chris</a> that this seems to be an unintuitive thing, however it seems like a great potential feature.

Comment 12

[Frank Yan (:fryn)]

This shortcut isn't consistent with any other major app on the platform, and we don't think it's a good idea. Closing as wontfix.