878412 - Use F12 to open the Toolbox

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(DevTools :: Framework, defect)

Description

[Rob Campbell [:rc] (:robcee)]

We need a single key to open the Devtools. I think we should use F12.

Comment 1

[Simon Lindholm]

That conflicts with Firebug, which could be a bad idea if we want the two to coexist.

Comment 2

[Jan Honza Odvarko [:Honza] (always need-info? me)]

I agree with Simon of course.

Honza

Comment 3

[Rob Campbell [:rc] (:robcee)]

Agreed, that's bad and we have a problem with it on Macs anyway that apparently still map F12 to Dashboard.

Shift-F12 if Firebug's installed?

Comment 4

[Simon Lindholm]

Firebug binds Shift-F12 to "disable". Not sure how many people use it, but at least I do.

Comment 5

[Jan Honza Odvarko [:Honza] (always need-info? me)]

Here is how Firebug is using F12:

                       Win+Lin   Mac
Open Firebug Panel 	F12 	F12 	
Close Firebug Panel 	F12 	F12 	
Deactivate Firebug 	Shift + F12 	Shift + F12 	
Open Firebug in window 	Ctrl + F12 	⌘ + F12

See also:
https://getfirebug.com/wiki/index.php/Keyboard_and_Mouse_Shortcuts

Honza

Comment 6

[matb33]

Although I haven't played Quake et al in a very long time, my brain is hard-wired  to hit the backtick/tilde key when wanting to open the browser console. I hit F12 reluctantly...

Even as a secondary key binding, it would make a great easter egg!

More info on origins of backtick for console:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_(video_game_CLI)

Comment 7

[Heather Arthur [:harth]]

Can we consider Cmd-Opt-I? I know it's used by the inspector now, but parity with Chrome, no conflict with Firebug (I think).

Comment 8

[Girish Sharma [:Optimizer]]

(In reply to Heather Arthur [:harth] from comment #7)
> Can we consider Cmd-Opt-I? I know it's used by the inspector now, but parity
> with Chrome, no conflict with Firebug (I think).

The bad thing, imho, with Chrome's shortcuts is that none of the three is tool specific. Even Cmd Opt I opens the last opened tool.

If we are planning to let remain the Inspector's, Console's and Debugger's shortcuts as is, then we might not be able to use Cmd Opt I to toggle toolbox.

Comment 9

[Heather Arthur [:harth]]

(In reply to Girish Sharma [:Optimizer] from comment #8)
> (In reply to Heather Arthur [:harth] from comment #7)
> > Can we consider Cmd-Opt-I? I know it's used by the inspector now, but parity
> > with Chrome, no conflict with Firebug (I think).
> 
> The bad thing, imho, with Chrome's shortcuts is that none of the three is
> tool specific. Even Cmd Opt I opens the last opened tool.

To me that's good! I need a last-opened-tool shortcut.

> If we are planning to let remain the Inspector's, Console's and Debugger's
> shortcuts as is, then we might not be able to use Cmd Opt I to toggle
> toolbox.

Yes, the inspector shortcut would have to change.

Comment 10

[Girish Sharma [:Optimizer]]

(In reply to Heather Arthur [:harth] from comment #9)
> (In reply to Girish Sharma [:Optimizer] from comment #8)
> > (In reply to Heather Arthur [:harth] from comment #7)
> > > Can we consider Cmd-Opt-I? I know it's used by the inspector now, but parity
> > > with Chrome, no conflict with Firebug (I think).
> > 
> > The bad thing, imho, with Chrome's shortcuts is that none of the three is
> > tool specific. Even Cmd Opt I opens the last opened tool.
> 
> To me that's good! I need a last-opened-tool shortcut.
> > If we are planning to let remain the Inspector's, Console's and Debugger's
> > shortcuts as is, then we might not be able to use Cmd Opt I to toggle
> > toolbox.
> 
> Yes, the inspector shortcut would have to change.

Yes we need that. I agree. But lets not change an already popular shortcut's behavior this drastically. Inspector and Console are very widely used, changing their shortcuts might be too much of a surprise for the user.

Comment 11

[Heather Arthur [:harth]]

(In reply to Girish Sharma [:Optimizer] from comment #10)
> Yes we need that. I agree. But lets not change an already popular shortcut's
> behavior this drastically. Inspector and Console are very widely used,
> changing their shortcuts might be too much of a surprise for the user.

I don't think it's a drastic change. It'll still open the devtools window, and they could read the new Inspector shortcut on the menu. The tools really aren't that widely used right now, in my perception. ~15,000 inspector opens on Nightly/Aurora in the past week.

We need a shortcut for toggling the tools. It would be ideal to use the same shortcut as another popular set of tools. If F12, some part of the 3 million Firebug users would be very annoyed. I think that leaves  Cmd+Opt+I .

Comment 12

[Girish Sharma [:Optimizer]]

(In reply to Heather Arthur [:harth] from comment #11)
> I don't think it's a drastic change. It'll still open the devtools window,
> and they could read the new Inspector shortcut on the menu. The tools really
> aren't that widely used right now, in my perception. ~15,000 inspector opens
> on Nightly/Aurora in the past week.

It would be awesome to have a similar number for Firebug and then we can compare to form a decision. [i.e The number of times Firebug got open using F12 in last week]

Comment 13

[Heather Arthur [:harth]]

Nick mentioned that we could use F12 (in addition to Cmd-Opt-I), but make sure Firebug overrides it.

Comment 14

[Heather Arthur [:harth]]

Bug for Ctrl+Shift+I/Cmd+Opt+I: bug 892168

Comment 15

[Rob Campbell [:rc] (:robcee)]

dibs!

Comment 16

[Rob Campbell [:rc] (:robcee)]

For the first pass of this, I'm going to add the F12 shortcut if Firebug is not present.

Comment 17

[Brandon Benvie [:benvie]]

I want F12 to work more than anything else in the entire world.

Comment 18

[Rob Campbell [:rc] (:robcee)]

Attachment: bug-878412-F12

Comment 19

[Girish Sharma [:Optimizer]]

landed in fx-team : https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/fx-team/rev/fa4afb7214ae

But .. no tests ?

Comment 20

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Backed out for talos xperf regressions.
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/fx-team/rev/9ce5efc16a8c

https://tbpl.mozilla.org/php/getParsedLog.php?id=26069958&tree=Fx-Team

Comment 21

[Joel Maher ( :jmaher ) (UTC -8)]

for reference, the xperf regression was that we were accessing new files at startup (a perf regression) due to the addon manager being instantiated.

Comment 22

[Rob Campbell [:rc] (:robcee)]

Attachment: bug-878412-F12 v2a

Comment 23

[Rob Campbell [:rc] (:robcee)]

Attachment: bug-878412-F12 v2b

Comment 24

[Brandon Benvie [:benvie]]

Comment on attachment 785102 [details] [diff] [review]
bug-878412-F12 v2b

Review of attachment 785102 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

::: browser/devtools/framework/gDevTools.jsm
@@ +415,5 @@
> +   * @return promise
> +   */
> +  _isFirebugInstalled: function DT_isFirebugInstalled() {
> +    let bootstrappedAddons = Services.prefs.getCharPref("extensions.bootstrappedAddons");
> +    return bootstrappedAddons.indexOf("[e-mail]") != -1;

return bootstrappedAddons.contains("[e-mail]");

Comment 25

[Rob Campbell [:rc] (:robcee)]

whatever. Quit harshin' my code. :P

Comment 26

[Joe Walker [:jwalker]]

Attachment: bug-878412-F12 v2c

Rebased

Comment 27

[Joe Walker [:jwalker]]

https://tbpl.mozilla.org/?tree=Fx-Team&rev=79edca22de3f
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/fx-team/rev/79edca22de3f

Comment 28

[Tim Taubert [:ttaubert] (inactive)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/79edca22de3f