652010 - New tab button should not move from under mouse.

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, enhancement)

Description

[Edward Shaw]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:5.0a2) Gecko/20110421 Firefox/5.0a2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:5.0a2) Gecko/20110421 Firefox/5.0a2

When opening new tabs with the new tab button, the button should not move away from under the mouse until the mouse has moved away, signifying the new tab button is no longer wanted.

One possible solution could be that the new tab button stays in place, while the new tabs open to the left. This would be much like the behavior when the tab bar is full.


Obviously these possible solutions could adversely affect users. It may be most other users do not open multiple tabs like this and it's just me, and the behavior now is the most efficient for most users.

Another possible solution could be a permanent re-homing of the button to the far right hand side of the tab bar.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start with the tab bar mostly empty.
2. Open a new tab with the New Tab button.
3. Open another new tab.
4. Open another new tab.
5. Notice the annoyance of constantly re-aiming the cursor to the button.
Actual Results:  
Annoyance of constantly re-aiming the cursor to the button.

Expected Results:  
Multiple tabs should be opened without the moving of the mouse button.

Comment 1

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

At the time of Firefox 3 or even earlier the button was at the right side, but there has been made a decision to put it right next to the last tab. I can't really remember that bug. Dao, could you please clarify? Otherwise input from UX would be appreciated.

Comment 2

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

This is working as expected, opening multiple blank tabs at once with the mouse doesn't seem like a use case that many users would care about. Note that when customizing toolbars, you can put a separator between the tabs and the button, which will prevent the button from merging with the tabs. Alternatively, you can just move the button somewhere else.