486393 - With closeWindowWithLastTab set to false behavior of middle-click on the last tab changes.

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Nochum Sossonko [:Natch]]

The behavior on trunk when there's only one tab is to not respond at all to a middle-click. I think the same should apply with the pref set, as it doesn't seem to imply any change of that behavior (and if it should change that behavior perhaps there should be an [x] button on the tab as well).

Comment 1

[Mardeg]

Umm.. so what does the behaviour change to?
Closing the browser, or replacing it with a blank tab?

Comment 2

[Nochum Sossonko [:Natch]]

Replacing it with a blank tab.

Comment 3

[Nochum Sossonko [:Natch]]

Attachment: patch

This should do it, although I'm not sure if it's wanted or not. Another thing to think about is the context menu on the last tab, either we can take this patch or I'll cook up another to enable _all_ the tab closing items ([x], context menu, middle-click).

Comment 4

[Mardeg]

I think this was discussed in bug 456382 and a blank tab was the intended behaviour over closing the window.

Comment 5

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Middle clicking on the last tab has been made a no-op because closing the window in that case seemed too harsh. This doesn't apply with closeWindowWithLastTab set to false.

Comment 6

[Nochum Sossonko [:Natch]]

Comment on attachment 370502 [details] [diff] [review]
patch

Hrm you're right, dunno how I missed that. It does seem a bit odd though.

->WONTFIX

Comment 7

[Nochum Sossonko [:Natch]]

Dao, I just thought that having these different paths seems a bit weird, i.e. either that pref should control the ability to close the last tab (including context menu and [x]), or it should only control the action taken when closing the last tab (with ctrl-W).

Comment 9

[Ryan McLean]

closeWindowWithLastTab: true = noop
closeWindowWithLastTab: false = closes tab and causes blank tab to replace it.

The preference is misleading. 

Can we please change the preference name to something resembling what it actually does?

May I suggest:
"LastTabMiddleClick"

with the options:
Blanktab
CloseWindow
NoOp

My prefered behaviour is CloseWindow but even if the default is noop and I can choose CloseWindow I'll be happy.

Comment 10

[José Jeria]

The new behavior is quite confusing and not consistent on Windows. CTRL + w closes the browser when there is only one tab left, but middle-clicking on it does nothing.

Middle clicking on the last tab should open the about:blank page. 

I can currently not empty the contents of the last tab using the mouse. I need to open a new tab, middle click on the first tab to achieve what I want.

Comment 11

[Ryan McLean]

Jose, 

in about:config change the option "browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab" to false

that should solve your issue at least. Personally as I stated I prefered the old behaviour.

Comment 12

[José Jeria]

I don't see changing a setting as a solution to this though. It is currently not possible to clear the contents of the last tab using the mouse.

Comment 13

[Ryan McLean]

If you change that setting middle clicking on the last tab causes the tab to be cleared & replaced with a blank tab.

The setting name is misleading as the functionality was changed but the name wasn't.

Comment 14

[José Jeria]

What I meant was that the settings solution is only a solution for my copy of Firefox. I fail to see why this behavior was changed.

Comment 15

[Ryan McLean]

Comment #5 indicates why, IMHO though that is not a reason to change behaviour but a reason to change the default setting.

I for one would like the changes to be reverted.

Comment 16

[José Jeria]

I agree with comment 5 that it is not correct to exit Firefox when middle clicking the last tab, but to disable this functionality for the mouse but not the keyboard does not seem right to me.

To exit Firefox when closing the last tab makes sense on Mac OS X, but not on Windows.

Comment 17

[Ryan McLean]

I am sorry, I can't see your logic there. To my mind a consistent experience across all operating systems should be desired goal.

I find it irksome that in linux the preferences menu is under edit but in windows it is under tools.

Comment 18

[José Jeria]

Ok, that might have been offtopic for this issue, but the problem remains, it is not possible to close the last tab with the mouse. I hope that this is reconsidered for the final release.