Closed Bug 455990 Opened 16 years ago Closed 16 years ago

Close button on last open tab should be hidden

Categories

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect, P2)

defect

Tracking

()

VERIFIED FIXED
Firefox 3.1b1

People

(Reporter: phiw2, Assigned: dao)

References

Details

(Keywords: verified1.9.1)

Attachments

(1 file, 1 obsolete file)

With only one tab open in a window, Mac tab-aware applications do 
	[a] disable the close button: Camino
	[b] hide the close button: Safari, Transmit, SubEthaEdit, to name just a few

To integrate with the common behaviour on OS X, Firefox should follow this lead. (either option is perfectly acceptable)

This is a follow-up on bug 455852 comment 5 and bug 455852 comment 6.

(in the light of the recent regression where closing the last open tab also closes the window…)
Flags: wanted-firefox3.1?
Flags: blocking-firefox3.1?
The theme can't disable the close button, but it can hide it.
i think this should be for all platforms since i really dont think the close button there makes any sense when only one tab is present
I would say the old functionality was nice, closing the last tab loads about:blank. But either way is ok with me.

On another note, I hope this change only happens when its the last tab in the last window. I like how it closes the window if its not the last one.
Component: Theme → Tabbed Browser
OS: Mac OS X → All
QA Contact: theme → tabbed.browser
Hardware: PC → All
Blocks: 392870
Summary: Close button on last open tab should be hidden or disabled → Close button on last open tab should be hidden
Would a patch for this bug also remove the ability to close the tab with CTRL+W?
I hope not; at least not on Mac OS X. Closing the window with Cmd+W is standard behaviour on Mac.
(In reply to comment #5)
> I hope not; at least not on Mac OS X. Closing the window with Cmd+W is standard
> behaviour on Mac.

ditto; remember bug 348031

(In reply to comment #3) 
> On another note, I hope this change only happens when its the last tab in the
> last window. I like how it closes the window if its not the last one.
That would be very confusing UI.
Assignee: nobody → dao
Attached patch patch (obsolete) — Splinter Review
Attachment #339489 - Flags: review?(mconnor)
OUTRAGE (@_@)! Wasn't there an aim toward platform integration before the release of Fx 3? What happened?

Or did Mozilla fire Alex Fåborg?

The correct solution to all these issues is obviously different on all platforms. Just because Safari on OSX does something it doesn't mean that will seem intuitive to users who never had intentions of using that OS.
well based on ie7/8 which shows tab without close button when you start it

and on Linux platform Firefox is most common browser (or at least one of the most common and comes with most distros)we can assume it wont matter what option we do in terms of tabs on it

so based on these two facts i think that this bug should stay multiplatform

the only browser i know that has close button on every tab even when only one tab is open is opera and it does not close browser completely when you click that tab
I don't remember what IE does, but it doesn't matter much anyway. If you want to replace the default browser, you need to provide a better UI, which means to not copy everything blindly. This applies to Safari as well.
I think determining what is a better UI should be based on user testing.

I installed Chrome for some non-tech people and they all complained that closing the tab "crashed" the browser. So that's an unexpected behaviour to exit on closing of last tab.

On the other hand, in the spring I also installed Safari (for Win) for others and they were asking me how do they close a site without closing the browser.

Not a formal testing but you can try it out on your friends and family; I really think the best option is how Firefox worked previously...
well assuming what you say is true an opera option would be best 

since with opera you close last tab it brings up speed dial
Opera used to let you close all tabs so only an empty gray area remained (version 5? 6?). Then they had hidden the close button on the last tab (I think this was around until 9.1x, not sure...). But now it behaves as you say, and yes I think it's fine that way.

They went through this process and made some of the mistakes the Firefox team might want to learn from...

However, I do agree that others shouldn't be cloned and creating an even better interface should be the goal. But there's much more to that (3D cube back/forward navigation anyone?), unfortunately I don't think Mozilla has the resources to reinvent the browser UI. Or maybe there's just too much resistance from the community.
Once we have content for about:blank, which might happen for 3.1, it probably makes sense to show the close button on the last tab, close the window if the last tab shows about:blank and otherwise replace it with about:blank. But as long as long as about:blank is blank, I think that's too unintuitive for most users. Speed Dial might also explain Opera's change.
> makes sense to show the close button on the last tab, close the window if the
> last tab shows about:blank and otherwise replace it with about:blank. But as

I'm pretty sure it can't be right to destroy the window container on a click targeted at the close button of a tab container; it's probably still better to hide/disable the button or perform some different action on press if it is available, in that situation. (Ctrl-w is a different story because it's not visually targeted on that level; I hope that decisions about its behavior do not get tied to tab close buttons any more than to the window close button, even though that key chord happens to do similar things to those buttons in various cases.)
So how am I going to get rid of this tab then?  I don't want that tabs content to load on restart even though  I have sessionstore enabled.  As is now, if I click the close button, I want that tab to close...no questions asked.  I definitely do not want that tab to load again when I start Firefox because I explicitly told Firefox to close that tab.  

I just saw that bug 455852 landed so at least Firefox won't close when I click the tab close button on the last tab (but only after I set the hidden pref not to do so.  So we need to think about all the other users who won't find this pref) but still, how am I going to get rid of this tab?  I know, I know...I need to go to another address by either bookmark, typing in the location bar, hitting the homepage button but that is unintuitive to tell a user they need to do that. 

Like with Excel.  If I close the document, Excel stays open Excel itself does not close.  And closing that document does not shutdown Excel.  If I then close Excel via the close button in the titlebar, If I start Excel again, the previous document does not open with Excel again.
(In reply to comment #16)
> As is now, if I
> click the close button, I want that tab to close...no questions asked.  I
> definitely do not want that tab to load again when I start Firefox because I
> explicitly told Firefox to close that tab.

We can fix that.
(In reply to comment #17)
> (In reply to comment #16)
> > As is now, if I
> > click the close button, I want that tab to close...no questions asked.  I
> > definitely do not want that tab to load again when I start Firefox because I
> > explicitly told Firefox to close that tab.
> 
> We can fix that.

What's the plan to fix it, if you have one yet?  I can't think of anything myself but I can definitely see users wanting to still close the tab.  Shortcut keys are definitely not the answer though.  I still think bug 455852 should be defaulted to false, give about:blank some content so when closing the last tab about:blank will load (how about populating it with recently starred bookmarks and recently closed tab previews?)  

Are there any other bugs that I should be following or at least a mailing list?

Also, we can't include Chrome in any of these examples because it is such a young, non-widely used browser without sessionstore.  So we can't even compare directly with how they handle closing tabs.
Blocks: 456405
(In reply to comment #18)
> Also, we can't include Chrome in any of these examples because it is such a
> young, non-widely used browser without sessionstore.

Chrome does have session restore, it's just off by default, and unfortunately not offered if you close it with multiple tabs/windows open, unlike Fx.
It needs to be decided if we do this and bug 456382 or bug 456425.
Keywords: uiwanted
We do this.
Flags: blocking-firefox3.1? → blocking-firefox3.1+
Priority: -- → P2
Keywords: uiwanted
Flags: wanted-firefox3.1?
Attached patch patch v2Splinter Review
Attachment #339489 - Attachment is obsolete: true
Attachment #340903 - Flags: review?(gavin.sharp)
Attachment #339489 - Flags: review?(mconnor)
Attachment #340903 - Flags: review?(gavin.sharp) → review+
Hi people, I have been thinking about it and I think there would be an even nicer (more intuitive) way to do this.

My idea would be, instead of leaving an "uncloseable" tab in the bar, wouldn't it be better to leave the bar "empty" or with a "No tabs open." message?

Also, instead of about:blank, it would be nice if it was some kind of "about:notabs" page, with a more informative message explaining the user how to bring some back (and possibly show some "most visited" "last visited" lists in there).
> Also, instead of about:blank, it would be nice if it was some kind of
> "about:notabs" page, with a more informative message explaining the user how to
> bring some back (and possibly show some "most visited" "last visited" lists in
> there).

See bug 455553.
http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/ec3a3468d1b9
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 16 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Target Milestone: --- → Firefox 3.1b1
Verified fix on Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.1b1pre) Gecko/20081006 Minefield/3.1b1pre.
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
flagging in-litmus?
Flags: in-litmus?
I'll see what these changes bring, but as of right now, i'm not liking it.  There should be an option for advanced users to close all tabs, period.  No hints of "Hey! Tabbed browsing exists!"  We know it exists.  When only one browser window is open, to have the tab visible is redundant.

I'd like an option for "One browser screen is open, no tabs are visible."

Seriously, tabbed browsing has been around for how many years now?  If they don't get it now, forcing tabbed browsing down their throats won't do much of anything for them to like it.
Keywords: verified1.9.1
Keywords: fixed1.9.1
I am also missing the close button on the last tab.

I want to be able to close the last tab.  I like to start with a clean window, and not leaving what I feel like unclosed web pages behind.  That is what I was used to do.  Now to get the same effect I have to first open a new window and close the first one.

I don't even understand what advantage the hiding brings.  If you don't want to close the tab, don't press the button.

Could it at least be made optional?
browser.tabs.hideCloseButtonOnLastTab = true/false?
(In reply to comment #31)
See bug 501714.
As a side note, since the bug report mentions Safari:
Safari on the iPhone has restored the (x) on the last sheet.
It now closes the last sheet and shows an "untitled" page.
Regarding the hiding of the [x] on the last open tab:

Damian Shaw [Quan] - "This is actually by design"

Obviously it was by design since someone made a conscious effort to take it away.  "By design" is always great in the mind of the programmer.  I can attest to this, having been a software engineer for over 30 years (engineering apps).  Early on I would come up with features or designs I thought were wonderful.  Then I'd have to listen to the users, "Why didn't you do it this way or that way or the other way??"

I learned that the best programmers listen to their users and work with them on what they need.  Some features can become optional, you know.

I think you folks got it right early on, but apparently that was accidental, judging by some of the discussion about how it should work.  Clicking the last [x] should not close the tab, nor close the entire browser window, it should simply wipe the space clean, like it used to.

Gabe writes - "... [I] really dont think the close button there makes any sense when only one tab is present."

Well, Gabe, that's because you don't like to clear the last tab when you're done.  Try reading what others DO like about it.  If you don't like having the [x] when there's only one tab open then there should be an option to hide it or keep it.  How hard can that be to implement?

Cork - "I would say the old functionality was nice, closing the last tab loads about:blank"

I agree.

Florian Fischer - "Safari on the iPhone has restored the (x) on the last sheet."

Probably for good reason: someone must've wanted it.

Final word?

Michael Kohler [:michaelkohler] - "since this is by design I mark it WONTFIX"

Sad, so you think that particular design is the wishes of ALL users?  To think I've made donations to Mozilla to help pay for these "designs".
C.T. Lanni, let's take this discussion to the moz.dev.apps.firefox newsgroup to not bugspam. And which bug did I close wontfix?
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