Make escape key close modeless dialogs

[Jediry]

I notice that people have opened this bug several times before and it's been closed with a comment saying "it already works like it's supposed to". Specifically, the escape key currently defocuses modeless dialogs, rather than closing them.

I really think you should reconsider this behavior, for a couple of reasons:
I (and many other people) are accustomed to Escape meaning "go away", not "lose focus". I want to be able to make the dialog vanish easily, because when I'm done with it, it's just taking up screen space in which I would rather see my drawing. If I just want to give focus to another window/dialog...that's what Alt-Tab is for, it seems to me. While it is possible to close the dialog with Alt-F4, I'd rather not use that key combination for this purpose, for two reasons: 1) it's harder to type, 2) if I inadvertently type it with the main window focused, then it will try to close my document and the whole app. Having the Escape key close non-essential windows, but do nothing to the main app window is nice, because I know that hitting Escape is always "safe", and it will always take me closer to the "default" UI state, where just the main app window is open.

I (and many Linux users) prefer to use X11-style "focus follows mouse" behavior, instead of Windows-style "click to focus" behavior. With this style of mouse interaction, the Escape key meaning "defocus dialog" offers zero added benefit, since I can defocus the dialog simply by pointing away from it.

Thanks

[Drbrain-users (drbrain-users)]

Originator: NO

I also run into this weird behavior that Escape does nothing on all the
Dialogs I come across in Inkscape. I observed the difference that those
Dialog do not block the application, but since I can close the Dialog (it
has a [X] on Windows) why can't Escape map to this action? It's very
frustrating ...

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Related (or duplicate) report: Bug #415861 "change shortcut for closing utility windows"

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Comment from (now duplicate) Bug #415861 "change shortcut for closing utility windows":
"Dialogs and the main window share the same close key combination (ctrl+w), what could lead to closing the main window accidentally."