Re: New Tab Behavior and Close Other Tabs

[Reinout van Schouwen <reinouts gnome org>]

Hello Martin,

Op vrijdag 01-06-2007 om 22:24 uur [tijdzone -0400], schreef Martin
Grondin:

> I would say having the homepage open on every tab without any option
> to turn that behavior off is a "bad thing" as you force a chunk of
> your users to try and relearn a browser they may not even use
> consistently (let's face it, most of us don't use Linux all the
> time). 

Well, Epiphany is not the only browser available on Linux. ;-)
Having said that, there exists a "blank new tab" extension that might
just be what you're looking for. However, the site that used to host it
returns a 404 now. I'm trying to find out if people still have it lying
around on their harddisk somewhere so we can offer it again on the 3rd
party extensions page.

> Also, again, this is the only browser I've seen that has this
> behavior. 

That in itself isn't an argument IMHO, if Epiphany just emulated other
browsers' behaviour there wouldn't be much point to it, would there?


> I guess one can ask: What does a user open a new tab in this fashion
> for most of the time? To visit their homepage again, or to enter in a
> URI?

One could also ask: What's the point of setting a homepage if it isn't
loaded whenever a new tab or window is opened?

>  As I had said before, also, I asked several people to go to cnn.com
> after opening a new tab. Every single one of them opened the new tab
> (Ctrl+T or File -> New Tab) and just went on to typing 'cnn.com'. None
> of them clicked into the location bar or hit "ctrl+L". 

By asking the question in this way, you already implied to those people
that they should first open a tab and then go to cnn.com. I wonder what
would happen if you asked them to enter cnn.com in the address bar and
make it open in a new tab? 

Now I'm fully aware that Ctrl+Enter or middle clicking the Go button
isn't exactly the obvious way to do it. (Then again, people have to
learn Ctrl+T at some point, too.) Perhaps the Go button should have a
dropdown like the Back/Forward buttons with a 'in New Tab' option? (just
an idea).

> On another note I'll be honest. My homepage is set to google.com. When
> I open a new tab in epiphany I STILL hilight the location bar and type
> in google.com without thinking. It's just second nature to type in my
> destination when I open a new tab.

Simply try entering a search term in the address bar some time, you may
be surprised! :-)

> Given the scope of users I would say the simplest thing to do would to
> make it a an option that can simply be toggled on or off. 

Have you read Havoc Pennington's essay on "please unbreak me"
preferences? If you haven't, please do:
http://www106.pair.com/rhp/free-software-ui.html


> Yes, the concept of a homepage is not very useful. Still, many people
> continue to use it :)

I guess that's why we didn't just dump it altogether yet ;)

regards,

-- 
Reinout van Schouwen