Make middle click close notification

[GoogleCodeExporter]

http://groups.google.com/group/growldiscuss/browse_thread/thread/b97f7
265db5e2c3f

It solves the problem of having to click exactly on the close button when you 
want to click through a notification. You can just middle click anywhere and 
then click wherever you originally wanted to click

Original issue reported on code.google.com by mailfor...@googlemail.com on 22 Oct 2009 at 10:02

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I second this. I have been trying to think of a good way to solve this "close 
all notifications" issue but this is the 
best idea I have heard. I second this.

Original comment by nsdav...@gmail.com on 25 Oct 2009 at 10:47

[GoogleCodeExporter]

How is clicking the close button a problem?

Original comment by chrisf.g...@gmail.com on 6 Dec 2009 at 8:08

• Changed state: WaitingOnUser

[GoogleCodeExporter]

A few cases.

1. it is slower and fiddly: Imagine you are already hovering over an element on 
the
screen (say, the silver button on OS X windows) and about to click it. the
notification pops up - if I click now, the wrong thing will happen. Moving my 
mouse
away from the target I want to click on in order to close the growl 
notification, and
then back to the right target is tiresome. If the growl closed on middle click I
wouldn't even need to move my mouse, saving me time and frustration.

2. Fitt's law: it's a lot quicker to hit a larger target. The close button is a 
very
small target and is fiddly to position the mouse over. Firefox, for example, 
lets you
just middle click on a tab to close it because of this issue. OS X also has a 
rather
curious mouse acceleration curve that makes the situation worse: in order to 
make the
menu bar easy to hit fast (I presume) - which means that by the time you've 
moved
your mouse as far as the top corner of the screen it's moving rather fast and 
is hard
to control. Hitting the close button is harder, so the whole process is slower.

3. It is consistent: Lots of things close when you middle click on them - tabs 
being
the best example. The fact that middle click _doesn't_ make a notification 
disappear
feels wrong to me, perhaps because I use it a lot elsewhere.

Does that clarify things?

Original comment by mailfor...@googlemail.com on 7 Dec 2009 at 12:29

[GoogleCodeExporter]

So for #1 we could give a 2 second leway before the close button activates. Or 
1 second. Something where a 
misclick wouldn't happen, i.e. you're unlucky enough to have a button to click 
that wasn't there a second ago.

For #2, if that's true, then apple would have increased their close button. Our 
close button is much larger than 
theirs is.

For 3, how do I middle click on my macbook pro to test that? 

Original comment by chrisf.g...@gmail.com on 7 Dec 2009 at 2:16

[GoogleCodeExporter]

#1:
I think we are talking cross purposes on #1: it is not the problem of clicking 
the
close button by mistake: That is rare, I think. I am talking about when your 
mouse is
in the right place ready to click a button _underneath_ growl but before you can
click it you must first close the notification, which means moving your mouse 
away
from the target. The delay would not solve this, in fact it would make it worse 
(!)
because you'd have to wait before you could dispatch the notification. I really 
can't
see a way of solving #1 without allowing the notification to be closed without
clicking the close button - middle click makes most sense to me. 

Oh - the most common example of this is when I want to click in a search box. 
For me
Firefox, Safari and iTunes search boxes very often end up _underneath_ a growl
notification, and I want to just move to the box, middle click to hide the
notification and then click to activate the search box. (move to location, 
click with
three fingers, then click with one finger). Maybe you'll say I'm lazy with my
mousework, but I think it's these details that make systems feel 'perfect' and 
complete.

#2:
For #2 I would say that the close button _is_ hard to click. Do you ever 
actually
click it? I don't - for the record - I think it much more common for mac users 
to use
cmd+q or cmd+w to close windows. With a browser, I always just middle click the 
last
tab to close the browser. Try moving your mouse from the centre of the screen 
to the
close button of a 'maximised' window - can you do it without overshooting? I 
can't.
On the other hand, hitting the much larger target of a growl notification isn't 
hard.
Also, unlike with Growl, if Apple were to increase the size of the close button
they'd be taking space away from content - making Growl accept middle clicks 
causes
no such problem. For the record - I would _love_ for a middle click on the 
title bar
to close and app, just because I hate hunting for the close button.

#3
I'm using MiddleClick (http://clement.beffa.org/labs/projects/middleclick/) to 
do
this on my MBP (multi touch), but I think something like 'Better Touch Tool' or
MultiClutch might work too (perhaps on older MBPs also). If you're just testing 
then
MiddleClick is simple and non-invasive... No SIMBL or similar, source code easy 
to
understand/tweak.

Original comment by mailfor...@googlemail.com on 7 Dec 2009 at 2:35

[GoogleCodeExporter]

We're not going to suggest to end users that they use some third party software 
to get keyboard functionality. 
That's not acceptable. I'm closing this.

Option+click would be acceptable maybe. But I'd want to discuss the other 
points first. However, we're not doing 
middle click.

Original comment by chrisf.g...@gmail.com on 7 Dec 2009 at 2:38

• Changed state: WontFix

[GoogleCodeExporter]

> Oh - the most common example of this is when I want to click in a search box.

In Safari, ⌘⌥F.

> For #2 I would say that the close button _is_ hard to click. Do you ever 
actually click it? I don't …

I do. All the time.

> I think it much more common for mac users to use cmd+q or cmd+w to close 
windows.

True (at least among power users—not less-advanced users), but not applicable 
to Growl notifications, which 
don't get focus.

> With a browser, I always just middle click the last tab to close the browser.

By “a browser” you mean “Firefox”. Safari does not support this. 
Neither does OmniWeb or even Camino. From 
that, I infer that Firefox is the only application that supports this method of 
closing tabs, putting it in the 
minority.

Handy as it may be, it's not nearly as common as you imply it is.

Original comment by prhgr...@gmail.com on 7 Dec 2009 at 2:42

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I think you might have got the wrong idea about what a middle click is: it 
doesn't
require any software if you have a mouse. 

Note that many of Apple's dialogues offer 'Middle Mouse Button' as an option for
actions - I'm looking at the 'Spaces and Expose' prefpane in 10.6, which has 
it. I
really don't think putting middle click in the category of needing end users 
"use
some third party software to get keyboard functionality" is fair at all.

To be clear: I'm not suggesting removing the close button, so there is no way in
which anyone would _require_ third party software to do this. Also, anyone with 
a
plugged in scroll mouse will be able to do a middle click by pressing in the 
scroll
wheel.

Option+Click does seem to be equivalent to 'middle click' in a great range of
situations, so that would be consistent and useful if it were to be implented. 

Original comment by mailfor...@googlemail.com on 7 Dec 2009 at 2:59

[GoogleCodeExporter]

>> Oh - the most common example of this is when I want to click in a search box.

>In Safari, ⌘⌥F.

Handy :)

>> I think it much more common for mac users to use cmd+q or cmd+w to close 
windows.

> True (at least among power users—not less-advanced users), but not 
applicable to 
> Growl notifications, which 
> don't get focus.

Which is why it makes sense to have better way to close them than the button 
that
inconvenient

>> With a browser, I always just middle click the last tab to close the browser.

> By “a browser” you mean “Firefox”. Safari does not support this. 
Neither does 
> OmniWeb or even Camino. From 
> that, I infer that Firefox is the only application that supports this method 
of 
> closing tabs, putting it in the minority.

My apologies: I don't use Safari or Omniweb and did my survey based on 
Firefox
Chrome
Opera

All of which _do_ support it. I hope we can agree it's not everywhere, but it 
is in
quite a few key places. 

> Handy as it may be, it's not nearly as common as you imply it is.

No, it seems I was wrong. I _really_ don't think that it means it isn't worth 
doing
though... I still feel reasons 1 and 2 stand aside from the points about 
consistency,
where the issues is less clear

In summary: 
#1: I don't think there's been much opposition to the idea that this can't be 
done
any other way and does represent a real problem.

#2: there's not a better way to close a growl notification even though we both 
agree
we tend not to use the close button in windows most of the time (me because it's
clumsy and hard to click on, I don't know why you tend to use the kb...)

So as it doesn't use third party stuff and that was the reason for making it
'wontfix' can we make it back in to a 'mightfix' bug please?

Original comment by mailfor...@googlemail.com on 7 Dec 2009 at 3:07