This already happens for some (many?) tools, so the bug report would be more
helpful if supplemented with a list of tools for which it currently doesn't work.

Dragging the selection with the fuzzy select tool was the example that was
reported in the channel.  There are probably others.

It would be nice to be able to cancel selection and paint tools using the Escape
key.

*** Bug 113564 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Cancel with Escape works for the new selection and crop tools.

Cancel with escape worked before. This bug is about being able to
press ESC while *mouse button 1 is down*. This needs new infrastructure
and should probably not be tried before 2.4

Works while mouse button 1 is down, too - at least on Windows. It does not work for the old select tools at all.

IMO the new behaviour is "just like the right-click method". If this report is about a different behaviour, it should be more precise about it.

That "new behavior" is a definitive Win32 GDK bug then. Tools are currently
not designed to receive any key events while mouse button 1 is pressed.

I can't reproduce the problem on Win32. Pressing ESC while dragging out a crop rectangle does nothing. I tested with both GTK+ 2.8.18 and 2.8.9.

The "right-click method" as observed on my system is:

- drag the selection tool with left button
- click and hold right mouse button
- release left button
=> selection is cancelled

The behaviour I see with the new select tools and Esacpe is:

- drag the selection tool with left button
- hold escape key
- release left button
=> selection is cancelled

Ah, you are seeing something entirely different here:

- hold MB3 while releasing MB1 -> cancel *this drag* only
  (try resizing an already existing rectangle)

- pressing escape while releasing MB1 -> cancel the entire tool
  (this is 100% the same as releasing MB1 and *then* hitting Esc)

Nothing weird going on, move along :)

AFAICS this is the case for all tools now, if not, please open individual
bugs for the tools where it doesn't work.