GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 109551
default middle click behavior
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
The current middle click behavior is to open the text in the clipboard as a url in a new window. Two reason this is not good: 1. When scrolling with the scroll wheel it is common for people to press the scroll button by mistake. I've seen this happen to people with galoen and watch them get very confused. 2. It is really useful to be able to middle click on a page and have the page turn to auto-scroll mode like in IE. This is not only useful but dramatically reduces the confusion caused by number one above as when you use the scroller again the auto-scroll mode is turned off.
Please add your comments to 107907 Thanks *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 107907 ***
No, this is unique. Bug 107907 is only about middle click pasting while this one is suggesting different default behavior for middle clicking in general. Middle-click pasting is the default in 1.2 (probably because of mozilla) and for a short while in 1.3 it was scrolling like ggv. I switched it back because pasting is probably more familiar. Depends on from where you're coming, though :-/
Well the reason I posted this was cus I have been testing some open source software on people neither very accustomed to windows or linux and this was causing problems. I try to avoid making arguments based on what people are used to :) To me, the main issue with the current behavior is that it is disruptive and confusing unless you're accustomed to Unix middle click and how it is handled in mozilla. In the greater scheme of things that's a vast minority. I prefer it the way it was when it was like ggv, AND this fixes the issue with accidental clicking. But it would be nicer to have the auto-scroll mode.
Having resources to perform real user tests does have its advantages. Fixed in CVS.