61869 - Changing tabs should happen on mousedown on win32

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 218146

(Core :: XUL, defect, P5)

Description

[Blake Ross]

On Windows, just mousing down on another tab in a <tabcontrol/> widget should 
switch to it.  But it needs to remain click on Mac.  Not sure about Linux...

Comment 1

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

As Blake and I established on IRC, it's only this way on Windows as the result of 
an unrelated UI problem. The background of a button is not highlighted when the 
button is clicked, just the border is changed. So, in order to look consistent, 
the background of a tab is not highlighted when the tab is clicked. But changing 
the border of the tab wouldn't make any visual sense, so Windows doesn't do that. 
So, when a mousedown happens on a tab, there is no obvious feedback on the tab. 
So, in order to provide feedback, Windows activates the tab on mousedown instead 
of mouseup ... And all for the want of a highlighted button.

The problem with this is that it removes the ability to cancel the tab selection 
by mousing off the tab while the mouse is still down. So for Linux, it would be 
infinitely preferable if the Linux Classic skin could be adjusted to fix the 
original problem (lack of background highlight in buttons, and therefore tabs), 
rather than taking away Linux users' ability to cancel the tab selection by 
mousing off it.

Comment 2

[Blake Ross]

*** Bug 70205 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3

[Peter Trudelle]

I agree with Matthew, and so do the Windows Interface Guidelines (pp 31-32 & p
165) Howevever, I think we should prefer established platform convention in this
case.

Comment 4

[Jason Bassford]

Is this bug still up for discussion or should it be closed?  (No activity in
over a year.)

Comment 5

[Jason Bassford]

*** Bug 185219 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[Jason Bassford]

My comments from bug 185219:

I don't agree with this at all.  Having it wait until you release the mouse
button gives you the opportunity to "abort" the action if you wish.  This is
similar to how clicking on the close tab or close window X does not do anything
until you release the mouse - you have the opportunity to change your mind.

Although I can confirm that Windows switches tabs on mouse down - it does NOT do
this with any of the window controls or with the taskbar buttons.  This makes
for a very confused UI experience because Microsoft is all over the place with
its inconsistency.  Going against Microsoft is not always a bad thing (in fact,
Mozilla would not exist if everybody thought that IE did things properly).

Comment 7

[Frank Yan (:fryn)]

Reading this bug is like looking into a time capsule!

This should be marked as RESOLVED FIXED.