Comment 47 for bug 66566

(In reply to comment #39)
> (In reply to comment #35)
> > Rahul, would you have time to incorporate Gavin's comments for a new patch? It
> > would be really appreciated.
Unfortunately, Gavin's comments so far don't indicate a direction that a patch could take, other than that he doesn't want a pref for this.

> gavin rejected adding a preference, and i agree with him. so it's either
> WONTFIX, or change the default shortcuts. change them to what? if someone
> answers this, i'll write the patch for it.

Wontfix does not sound like a good idea for a bug that already has 11 votes and 6 duplicates. We'll get complaints about inconsistent shortcuts forever.

To fix this, I think someone would first have to update the account of current behaviour as provided in comment #23. Some things have changed, e.g. in location bar, current behaviour is <alt>+enter for new tab (which is the main inconsistency this bug is about). Also, IE behaviour has changed, new tab modifier for links is now <ctrl> (like in FF). I think the concluding proposal of comment #23 is on the right track, but there is a logical error (probably typo) in the proposal for "in background" modifier key, which can't be the same as "new tab" modifier. So, without checking all the details, probably this would be a possible solution

Proposal:
  "new Tab" Accelerator (default: [CTRL])
  "new Window" Accelerator (default: [SHIFT])
  "in Background" Accelerator (default: [SHIFT])
  "auto Complete" Accelerator (default: [ALT])
  "save as" Accelerator (default: [ALT])

So for Links, Location Bar, Search Bar, History and Bookmarks:
  [new Tab] + [ENTER] -> new Tab
  [new Tab] + [in Background] + [ENTER] -> new Tab in background
  [new Window] + [ENTER] -> new Window
  [auto Complete] + [ENTER] -> auto complete (Location and Search Bar only)
  [save as] + [ENTER] -> save link as (Links, History and Bookmarks only)
  (same behaviour for clicks instead of [ENTER])

I think we must be BETTER than IE and provide shortcuts that are consistent all over the place. Probably <ctrl> should be the consistent "new tab" modifier for all places:
a) Accepting that "new tab" modifier should be consistent throughout the UI
b) Accepting that "intelligent consistency" might be higher value than "IE compatibility" (we have the right and the claim to be better!)
b) Noting that many people seem to expect <ctrl> to be the "new tab" modifier
c) Assuming that <ctrl> tab is currently used most frequently as "new tab" modifier (both in IE and FF), because it's used with links
d) Noting that FF currently uses <ctrl> as "new tab" modifier in the following places (when clicked; keyboard support for ctrl+enter is missing in some places and has its own bugs):
- Links (!)
- History (sidebar/menus/library)
- Bookmarks (sidebar/menus/library)

I'm aware I haven't covered all the details yet, this is just a starting point.