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create page, as per request from Ben Goodget at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=236721#c51
Discuss: Ctrl-W on last tab should not close firefox. Ref: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=236721 bug in bugzilla].
==Use case==
Ctrl+w should behave as the tab bar's close button already does, and as Ctrl+F4 already does, and as right click on tab -> "Close tab" already does. Ctrl+w and File->Close Tab should be consistent with every other tab-closing
method, and close the tab, but not the window.
In detail:
* Ctrl+W will close the selected tab, as per currently, until only one tab is left.
* When that tab is left, ctrl+w will blank the tab and clear session history (basically a quicker way of closing the tab and creating a new one).
* If Ctrl+W is pressed again, treat as above - i.e. you still have the window open, with one blank tab, with no session history.
==Arguments in favour and against==
===Pro===
* Inconsistency: Close tab button and Ctrl-W are currently inconsistent ("close tab button" keeps app open, ctrl-W closes the app). Also in the same way, currently inconsistent with right click on tab -> "Close tab" (which does not close the app).
* There's already a keyboard shortcut for closing the app (SHIFT+CTRL+W).
* Surprise: The current behaviour is often surprising - "Whoa! Where did my browser window just go?". New behaviour will not be surprising to the new user.
* It's currently in an extension (Tab Mix Plus, under "Events" tab -> option "Do not close window when closing last tab by hotkey"), so there is demand for this and it can be done on Firefox.
* Non-intrusive: There was [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=195101 a patch] (now out of date) which nevertheless showed how to do this, and the changes required were small (2 Kb).
* Precedent in other multi-tabbed browsers: This is how tab closing via Ctrl-W works in IE7, NetCaptor, and Opera, among others.
* Clarity: Closing the tab and closing the window are two very different things - one means "I'm done with the current block of information, but this app is still useful to me", and the other means "this entire app is no longer of any use to me" - they are conceptually different things. At the moment this is being muddied by having the meaning of Ctrl-W change between these two things, depending on context.
* Faster: Can close all tabs by holding down ctrl-W for 1 second, which is faster than switching to the mouse.
===Con===
* It's a change in the User Interface from how it was in Firefox 1.0 and 1.5.
* Closing a tab that creates a new blank tab is arguably not closing a tab.
* Users on UNIX systems wanting mouse keyboard bindings may want a key binding that uses two keys rather than 3 to close the app (although Alt-F4 may do this?)
==Use case==
Ctrl+w should behave as the tab bar's close button already does, and as Ctrl+F4 already does, and as right click on tab -> "Close tab" already does. Ctrl+w and File->Close Tab should be consistent with every other tab-closing
method, and close the tab, but not the window.
In detail:
* Ctrl+W will close the selected tab, as per currently, until only one tab is left.
* When that tab is left, ctrl+w will blank the tab and clear session history (basically a quicker way of closing the tab and creating a new one).
* If Ctrl+W is pressed again, treat as above - i.e. you still have the window open, with one blank tab, with no session history.
==Arguments in favour and against==
===Pro===
* Inconsistency: Close tab button and Ctrl-W are currently inconsistent ("close tab button" keeps app open, ctrl-W closes the app). Also in the same way, currently inconsistent with right click on tab -> "Close tab" (which does not close the app).
* There's already a keyboard shortcut for closing the app (SHIFT+CTRL+W).
* Surprise: The current behaviour is often surprising - "Whoa! Where did my browser window just go?". New behaviour will not be surprising to the new user.
* It's currently in an extension (Tab Mix Plus, under "Events" tab -> option "Do not close window when closing last tab by hotkey"), so there is demand for this and it can be done on Firefox.
* Non-intrusive: There was [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=195101 a patch] (now out of date) which nevertheless showed how to do this, and the changes required were small (2 Kb).
* Precedent in other multi-tabbed browsers: This is how tab closing via Ctrl-W works in IE7, NetCaptor, and Opera, among others.
* Clarity: Closing the tab and closing the window are two very different things - one means "I'm done with the current block of information, but this app is still useful to me", and the other means "this entire app is no longer of any use to me" - they are conceptually different things. At the moment this is being muddied by having the meaning of Ctrl-W change between these two things, depending on context.
* Faster: Can close all tabs by holding down ctrl-W for 1 second, which is faster than switching to the mouse.
===Con===
* It's a change in the User Interface from how it was in Firefox 1.0 and 1.5.
* Closing a tab that creates a new blank tab is arguably not closing a tab.
* Users on UNIX systems wanting mouse keyboard bindings may want a key binding that uses two keys rather than 3 to close the app (although Alt-F4 may do this?)
