Consider disabling middlemouse.contentLoadURL by default

[Jason Pearce]

--- Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen at raw.no> wrote:

> | middlemouse.contentLoadURL gets
> | in the way of someone using the browser if they don't understand or
> | don't like the feature.
> 
> I'm sorry, but that's like saying right-clicking gets in the way of
> exploring the user interface.  If you right-click, something else
> should happen than if you left click.  If you middle-click, something
> else than left-clicking happens.

Right clicking doesn't change the current web page unexpectedly. Right
clicking has an obvious response. You right click and a context menu
pops up just like in almost every other program and interface on a
modern computer.

Loading the current Primary Selection as a URL when you middle click on
an unhyperlinked part of the web page changes the current web page to
something else. Unless you know what it is doing, it will not make
since.

Every other middle click you do opens an new tab. It does not change
the current web page.

Most new users of the X Window system do not understand the use of the
Primary Selection. They usually do not even know about it. They
shouldn't have to. A choice frase to illustrate this from the
freedesktop.org spec is "PRIMARY is an "easter egg" for expert users,
regular users can just ignore it" and again "You don't have to know
about PRIMARY if you're a newbie."

Even newbies use middle click in a browser. If they miss a hyperlink
when they click, the browser's current action will not make any since.
They will have something happen without any clues as to what or why.  

It is also important, I think, that the spec says "middle mouse button
should paste PRIMARY." Not middle mouse button should paste primary
except in the browser will it will load primary as a URL. I am an X
user a many years and I still found the middlemouse.contentLoadURL
feature to be frustrating and counter intuitive to the specified middle
click interface provided everywhere else in the X Window environment.

> | For instance, I did not realise that I could middle click a tab to
> | close it. That is awesome. I will use that tho improve my browsing
> | experience every time I use Firefox. However, before I understood
> | the feature, it never got in my way. It was unobtrusive. It was 
> | seemlessly integrated. That is a good feature to have enabled by
> | default. It doesn't change the interface paradigm and it doesn't
get > | in the way.
> 
> I really don't see why  middle-clicking a tab and it disappearing is
> any more obvious that you middle-clicking a page and it turning into
> something else.

I wasn't saying that it is more obvious. I said that it is
"unobtrusive," "seemlessly integrated," and as a result "is a good
feature to have enabled by default."

A newbie will not trip over "middle clicking on a tab closes the tab."
That makes it a good candidate for being enabled by default even though
a newbie won't use it.

A newbie will trip over "missing the link on a web page when middle
clicking sends me to some random web page." That makes it a good
cadidate for being disabled by default with a non-obvious way for
advanced users who what it to enable it.

Thanks,
Jason Pearce


		
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