30
edits
Changes
→Pro: point by point rebuttals is a can of worms, but...
===Pro===
* Inconsistency: Close tab button and Ctrl-W are currently inconsistent ("close tab button" keeps app open, ctrl-W closes the (possibly last) window). Also in the same way, currently inconsistent with right click on tab -> "Close tab" (which cannot close the app). Also in the same way, currently inconsistent with middle button click on tab (closes tab, but not the window, even if only tab left).
** ...but all these actions are graphically targeted at the tab; Ctrl-W is not.
* There's already a keyboard shortcut for closing the window (SHIFT+CTRL+W).
** ...but that's not at all what Ctrl-W does, conceptually.
* 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 in this way.
* Precedent in other multi-tabbed browsers: This is how tab closing via Ctrl-W works in IE7, NetCaptor, and Opera, among others.
** ...but all these apps display a single-tab tab bar by default; Firefox does not. (see also related [[Ctrl_W_not_close_app#Behavior_dependent_on_tab_bar_visibility|proposal]] below)
* 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.
** ...but what if "I'm done with the current block of information, and the window is as useful as the documents it contains"? The proposal requires use of different keybindings case by case, when the same thing is meant.* Easier to close all tabs without closing the browser (by holding Ctrl+Wrather than Ctrl-F4).* Firefox supports multiwindow tabless browsing; ctrl-w closing the document but not the window is consistent with applications such as MS Office 2000 and GEdit (GNOME text editor; it will actually close a window with ctrlCtrl-W, but not the last window).
* Currently, when I'm done with a tab, I cannot always safely press Ctrl+W, and assume that the right thing will happen (the tab will close, but the window will stay open). As I have to press a different shortcut to close a tab when it is the only one left, I sometimes accidentally press the Ctrl-W shortcut without realizing that it will close the window.
* Blanking a tab is a useful action if you browse in single-window-mode (as the window is long-lived, whereas the tab is disposable - so we want the window to stick around, but need a way of clearing the content from the last tab when we are done with it, without closing the window)
