Created attachment 90037 [details] [review]
Patch that works for me

While I see why it could be convenient, it makes it too easy to accidentally close a window. So I don't think it's a good idea to have this.

First i thought too, that it might be annoying, but now i don't think so anymore. Here are some arguements (sorry if my english is bad):

- I asked a friend of mine who is using firefox for years if he knows what happens if he clicks with the middle mouse button on a tab. He didn't know, so i conclude: You don't press the middle mouse button by accident when you want to click on something with the right or left mouse button.
- Most mouses don't have a middle mouse button, only a wheel which is very hard to click by accident
- most laptops don't have a middle mouse button below their touchpad.
- If it's really bad to close an application (e.g. unsaved data, multiple tabs) the application will pop-up a window and ask you if really want to close it. (this is the most important point imo)

I think its a very cool feature, you can close windows much easier. When you have a top panel it's also harder to close the window with the x because you can't move the mouse to the top right. So there are many people who close windows by right clicking on their tasklist entry and select close. But this is not very comfortable because the "close" is even not on the bottom of this pop-up menu.

(In reply to comment #3)
> First i thought too, that it might be annoying, but now i don't think so
> anymore. Here are some arguements (sorry if my english is bad):
> 
> - I asked a friend of mine who is using firefox for years if he knows what
> happens if he clicks with the middle mouse button on a tab. He didn't know, so
> i conclude: You don't press the middle mouse button by accident when you want
> to click on something with the right or left mouse button.

I know many people who don't use tabs. So they never closed a tab by accident because they don't use tabs :-) However, they all use a window list.

Another thing is that you often put the mouse cursor at the bottom of the screen because you don't want to see it where you're typing. And when you grab your mouse again, you have more chance to press a button (can be left or right or middle). This can be dangerous.

And really, we don't want to make it too easy to perform a destructive task. Right-click+choosing a menu item is not that hard.

(I'm not even talking about the fact that middle-clicking on group buttons now activate the next window in the group, which is just totally different from closing a window).

(In reply to comment #4)
> (In reply to comment #3)
> > First i thought too, that it might be annoying, but now i don't think so
> > anymore. Here are some arguements (sorry if my english is bad):
> > 
> > - I asked a friend of mine who is using firefox for years if he knows what
> > happens if he clicks with the middle mouse button on a tab. He didn't know, so
> > i conclude: You don't press the middle mouse button by accident when you want
> > to click on something with the right or left mouse button.
> 
> I know many people who don't use tabs. So they never closed a tab by accident
> because they don't use tabs :-) However, they all use a window list.

My friend was using tabs, so was I. I think it's a good example, because i never see firefox user complaining about the middle-click close feature. And within a browser it's even more dangerous because most website don't have a "really want to close?" or "Save before closing?" question.

> Another thing is that you often put the mouse cursor at the bottom of the
> screen because you don't want to see it where you're typing. And when you grab
> your mouse again, you have more chance to press a button (can be left or right
> or middle). This can be dangerous.

This might be only case if you have a mouse with a real middle button, because for a mouse with a wheel it's nearly impossible to click down the wheel when grabbing the mouse again, isn't it?
Also this is not a problem for notebook users, because their touchpad only does left clicks when touching it with your finger.
So this is only a problem for users with a real middle mouse button, and i can't image how to grab your mouse and click the middle mouse button. Normally i move my hand to the mouse and move it, never clicked a button by accident (at least not the middle one).

> And really, we don't want to make it too easy to perform a destructive task.
> Right-click+choosing a menu item is not that hard.

I'm working with it for 2 days now and it's a really cool feature imho.

> (I'm not even talking about the fact that middle-clicking on group buttons now
> activate the next window in the group, which is just totally different from
> closing a window).

I think this doesn't have to change because closing a complete group is really annoying.

(In reply to comment #5)
> (In reply to comment #4)
> > And really, we don't want to make it too easy to perform a destructive task.
> > Right-click+choosing a menu item is not that hard.
> 
> I'm working with it for 2 days now and it's a really cool feature imho.

I agree it's cool for people who know about it. But it can be really not cool for other people.

> > (I'm not even talking about the fact that middle-clicking on group buttons now
> > activate the next window in the group, which is just totally different from
> > closing a window).
> 
> I think this doesn't have to change because closing a complete group is really
> annoying.

Oh, I was not talking about changing this, but about the fact that an action that is the same (middle-clicking) does not have the same result on buttons that are similar enough to users.

Anyway, really, that's WONTFIX for me, but maybe Elijah, Havoc or Mark will think otherwise, in which case they'll reopen this bug.

In 2.19 the "close" is at the bottom of the context menu, which makes it easier to close a window with right click -> close, so this isn't necessary. I see, you were right, it's WONTFIX.

*** Bug 559243 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 549204 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

its 2016 now, surely any grandma will know that middle-click will close the tab its clicked on whether in a file manager or a browser.

Perhaps its time to revisit this decision?

any grandma won't even know that she can press down the mousewheel.