GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 157990
Feature: Don't open new window or tab until it is actually needed
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
I read my mail and news in Emacs and it is configured to use Galeon when I click on an URL. So do a lot of other applications (ie. Acrobat Reader, ...) When the URL's are click Galeon either something like "galeon http://bla/bla", "galeon --new-window http://bla/bla" or "gnome-open http://bla/bla" is executed. But quite often it turns out that the document on the specified URL can not be shown inside Galeon so I'm given the choice of either saving the file or opening it with some other tool. In both cases this leaves me with an open Galeon window with no page in it. Now if the window wasn't opened until it was needed (that is we now the document must be displayed inside Galeon) I wouldn't have to close the window afterwards and wouldn't to look at the window ... The same would also apply if I used a "galeon --new-tab http://bla/bla" and - espacially - when a webpage requests that a link (to i.e. a PDF-file) be opened in a new window.
This is a rather complicated problem. Basically links pointing to, say a PDF should be opened directly in gnome-pdf or something, not the browser. Unfortunately hardly any link includes the mimetype they're linking to. OTOH, gnome-open *could* issue a HEAD request for http-links... Another issue is that we really need to provide some feedback as soon as possible. Otherwise you'd easily end up clicking the same link several times when nothing appears to happen. I think a new tab/window should be shown only at the time we know we can render its contents. Just need to figure out a way to provide feedback in the meantime.
*** Bug 160012 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Also, as noted in bug 160012, this is the same problem for pages opened via target=_blank href's
I knew I had seen this bug before. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 116511 ***