The reason it's not normally a problem is that if you're working on a document and you hit ⌘Q (or ⌘W for that matter) you will be prompted to save your changes.
However, this does become a problem in web browsers and file browsers where there are no changes to save.
Apparently in the early days of OS X the NEXTSTEP guys wanted to add a ⌘Q shortcut to Finder, which would log you out of OS X. As the story goes, some people at Apple really hated that idea, so after some lively debate they settled on ⌘⇧Q instead. (As a bonus, it's now a global shortcut, so you don't have to be in Finder to use it.)
Similar problem with web browsers. You can give it a different shortcut, or you can enable a prompt to warn when closing multiple tabs. Most people opt for the latter.
In System 7, I think it was, it was possible to use ResEdit on the Finder to add a ⌘Q. Useful if you were low on memory. IIRC, if the last application exited, the Finder would restart.
In earlier versions of OS X (<= 10.3 (?)), ⌘Q when in the Finder quits it, just like any other application, which was a little disconcerting the first time you did it (by mistake).
Most browsers warn you if you are about to close multiple tabs.... I guess chrome doesn't? Weird.
That would be an implementation problem for chrome - every other OSX application tends to properly warn you if you are about to close multiple context windows with cmd-q.
EDIT: Just researching a bit- this seems to be a conflict between the Chromium design goals and the OSX UI guidelines... the Chrome team absolutely refuses to add a warning dialog if you try to close multiple tabs, but it would be the expected behaviour on OSX.
I tend to fall on the side of OSX - part of what makes it great is UI consistency - and this is one case where Chromium is making things worse, not better.
I think that the best approach would be do have a warning as default, except from in "Incognito" mode - that way, people who feel a need to quickly close the browser can use Incognito mode or disable the warning and the rest of us avoid troublesome accidental closing of the browser.
Do people really not know that Chrome has an option to reopen itself with the tabs you had open last? Preferences > Basics > On Startup > Reopen the pages that were open last.
If you have something typed up, it may not always come back. For instance, Facebook uses javascript-y input boxes, so if you accidentally back away or close the window, the browser will not restore your content. Also, a Flash game will not save your state, etc.
I've had this happen to me in Chrome a few times recently (I switched to Chrome full time a few weeks ago), but I've never had it happen in Safari since Safari prompts you if you have multiple tabs/windows open.
What's really needed here is not more distance between hotkeys, but instead universal lightweight undo for user interactions.
The most precious resource is the user's time. There should be no interaction that irreversibly discards the user's work. We have fairly universal undo for editing operations; there should be just as much undo support for closing windows, tabs, or apps -- carefully constructed artifacts of the user's workflow.
On the other hand, in Dvorak, Q is directly above the left ⌘ key (where X usually is), and W is directly above the right ⌘ key (where , usually is). I'm always reminded of this serendipitous symmetry whenever people complain about ⌘Q and ⌘W being adjacent on QWERTY.
In vi, I use control+w to shift between the sections of a split window. You can imagine the hilarity that used to ensue. But, it's not an issue anymore. I haven't made that mistake in well over a year.
Similarly, in emacs I use ctrl+n to go down. On FF, this will open 5-20 windows, depending on how long I wait. (I have a very fast repeat.) Pentadacty with emacs bindings has helped with, but occasionally I will hit the key to pass all keys to FF, and once again end up with ~20 windows to close.
Switchers to OS X with a german keyboard layout also experience quite a lot of fun. That's because on Windows, you have to type ALT+Q to get the @ in an email adress.
You have to fight your muscle memory not to type CMD+Q in OS X.
German hackers represent: On a German keyboard on Windows or Linux, you have to enter a few characters with the right Alt key (the "AltGr" key). This includes the "@" sign, which is located on the "Q" key. A lot of first-time switchers thus cause their browser to close every time they try to enter an email address.
Incidentally, the "@" sign, as many other characters, is on a different key on the German Mac layout. Never understood why e.g. the US layout stays the same on every system, but the German one doesn't. Good time that I switched to the US one long ago. Now I only have to fight with different ways to access umlauts…
With a bit of practice, you can train your hand to do ⌘-W as a 3-finger "chord" by touching your middle finger to the 'Q' key before allowing your index finger to depress the 'W'.
I'm using Firefox and Vimperator [1] with a TypeMatrix EZ-Reach 2030 [2] mapped to US-Dvorak under FreeBSD 8.1 with xmonad [3] + xmobar [4].
This means that:
- When my fingers are resting on the home row, they are on keys a, o, e, u and h, t, n, s.
- When I want to close a tab in Firefox, I press d, which is left of h.
- When I want to quit Firefox completely, I press :q.
I can't remember the last time I closed a tab I didn't want to close or exited Firefox without meaning to do so. The only problem I had for a while, was that I started "record macro" with q when I meant to scroll with j - that hasn't happened for quite some time now.
I mostly only use Chromium if I am logged in on various sites in Firefox and I need to use my server as proxy to access a web service bound to 127.0.0.1 on the server (meaning that it is not publicly accessible), while also using the sites I am logged in on in Firefox. I always quit Chromium by closing all tabs, and as mentioned by others, Ctrl+w is far away from Ctrl+q.
On German Windows keyboards, @ is on right-Alt-Q. Recently, I had a (Windows-trained) guest who wanted to write an email on my Mac, but Firefox kept "crashing".
Huh. I guess that's true, for some reason I've never noticed it before.
I usually keep my left hand on my "home keys" when browsing (Firefox user here), in order from pinky to thumb, q-w-e-f-⌘, of which I use w, f, and ⌘ on a regular basis, and I guess that usually keeps me from mis-hitting q when I mean w, I'd actually have to push the wrong finger, which is pretty rare.
Right thumb goes on the trackpad for mouse interactions (much easier now that the MBP trackpad presses in rather than having a button), other four fingers on that hand go on j-k-l-; (⌘+j/k/l I use all the time for downloads/search/address bar, ; is wasted, of course). Scrolling is the only thing that sucks, but you can get pretty far with space/shift+space (hit space with left thumb, shift with right pinky).
If I had a problem with this, I'd probably go with the WoW shortcut for quitting, alt+command+Q, which is pretty hard to do accidentally (Double-thumb keypress? Expert move...) and doesn't tend to be bound to anything else. Command+1 seems like a bad idea because some of us are very used to Command+(number) to switch to tabs.
Huh? I never had that problem and do actually like it that way. Train yourself to use the middle finger for "W" and the ring finger for pressing "Q" and the problem vanishes. It will still happen to you perhaps once per month, but I can live with that.
This has bitten me several times and it really sucks. The "Restore Tab" function doesn't restore the state of Flash applications and it doesn't restore content in some input boxes (like those on Facebook, because they are hidden by JS initially).
If you're in Private Browsing mode and this happens, you lose the whole session forever, and that just happened to me the other day. It was really frustrating. :(
Maybe it's a version thing, but Ctrl+Shift+T doesn't work for me. Cmd+Shift+T does. But will it restore all the tabs you had open when you accidentally quit?
I've never had this happen to me if I recall. Do the people who have a problem with this not keep their hand in "typing position"? It seems really difficult to me, with my left hand in position (which can be assured with the F dot) to hit W with my pinky or Q with my ring finger.
[+] [-] thought_alarm|15 years ago|reply
However, this does become a problem in web browsers and file browsers where there are no changes to save.
Apparently in the early days of OS X the NEXTSTEP guys wanted to add a ⌘Q shortcut to Finder, which would log you out of OS X. As the story goes, some people at Apple really hated that idea, so after some lively debate they settled on ⌘⇧Q instead. (As a bonus, it's now a global shortcut, so you don't have to be in Finder to use it.)
Similar problem with web browsers. You can give it a different shortcut, or you can enable a prompt to warn when closing multiple tabs. Most people opt for the latter.
[+] [-] metageek|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] parenthesis|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bconway|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dedward|15 years ago|reply
That would be an implementation problem for chrome - every other OSX application tends to properly warn you if you are about to close multiple context windows with cmd-q.
EDIT: Just researching a bit- this seems to be a conflict between the Chromium design goals and the OSX UI guidelines... the Chrome team absolutely refuses to add a warning dialog if you try to close multiple tabs, but it would be the expected behaviour on OSX.
I tend to fall on the side of OSX - part of what makes it great is UI consistency - and this is one case where Chromium is making things worse, not better.
[+] [-] abraham|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] erikano|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jemfinch|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eli|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alunny|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wmoxam|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] miguelrios|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cookiecaper|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sohooo|15 years ago|reply
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8247646/sessions/index.html
[+] [-] noahth|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sh1mmer|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jamesbritt|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slig|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sp4rki|15 years ago|reply
+1
[+] [-] martingordon|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glhaynes|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] megrimlock|15 years ago|reply
The most precious resource is the user's time. There should be no interaction that irreversibly discards the user's work. We have fairly universal undo for editing operations; there should be just as much undo support for closing windows, tabs, or apps -- carefully constructed artifacts of the user's workflow.
[+] [-] andreyf|15 years ago|reply
Apps: double tap
Windows: Good idea! If only there was an OS that treated those as vital UI components...
[+] [-] katovatzschyn|15 years ago|reply
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/03/the-opposite-of-fit...
[+] [-] kamechan|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nanotone|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scott_s|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BCM43|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sohooo|15 years ago|reply
You have to fight your muscle memory not to type CMD+Q in OS X.
[+] [-] mhd|15 years ago|reply
Incidentally, the "@" sign, as many other characters, is on a different key on the German Mac layout. Never understood why e.g. the US layout stays the same on every system, but the German one doesn't. Good time that I switched to the US one long ago. Now I only have to fight with different ways to access umlauts…
[+] [-] tedge|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] erikano|15 years ago|reply
This means that:
- When my fingers are resting on the home row, they are on keys a, o, e, u and h, t, n, s.
- When I want to close a tab in Firefox, I press d, which is left of h.
- When I want to quit Firefox completely, I press :q.
I can't remember the last time I closed a tab I didn't want to close or exited Firefox without meaning to do so. The only problem I had for a while, was that I started "record macro" with q when I meant to scroll with j - that hasn't happened for quite some time now.
I mostly only use Chromium if I am logged in on various sites in Firefox and I need to use my server as proxy to access a web service bound to 127.0.0.1 on the server (meaning that it is not publicly accessible), while also using the sites I am logged in on in Firefox. I always quit Chromium by closing all tabs, and as mentioned by others, Ctrl+w is far away from Ctrl+q.
[1]: http://vimperator.org/vimperator
[2]: http://typematrix.com/ezr2030/
[3]: http://xmonad.org/
[4]: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/xmobar
[+] [-] zaius|15 years ago|reply
defaults write com.google.Chrome NSUserKeyEquivalents '{"Quit Google Chrome"="@$Q";}'
[+] [-] limmeau|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ewjordan|15 years ago|reply
I usually keep my left hand on my "home keys" when browsing (Firefox user here), in order from pinky to thumb, q-w-e-f-⌘, of which I use w, f, and ⌘ on a regular basis, and I guess that usually keeps me from mis-hitting q when I mean w, I'd actually have to push the wrong finger, which is pretty rare.
Right thumb goes on the trackpad for mouse interactions (much easier now that the MBP trackpad presses in rather than having a button), other four fingers on that hand go on j-k-l-; (⌘+j/k/l I use all the time for downloads/search/address bar, ; is wasted, of course). Scrolling is the only thing that sucks, but you can get pretty far with space/shift+space (hit space with left thumb, shift with right pinky).
If I had a problem with this, I'd probably go with the WoW shortcut for quitting, alt+command+Q, which is pretty hard to do accidentally (Double-thumb keypress? Expert move...) and doesn't tend to be bound to anything else. Command+1 seems like a bad idea because some of us are very used to Command+(number) to switch to tabs.
[+] [-] Argorak|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thisisblurry|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jrockway|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CoreDumpling|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjscott|15 years ago|reply
(I would do this myself, but I keep putting it off.)
[+] [-] eru|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cookiecaper|15 years ago|reply
If you're in Private Browsing mode and this happens, you lose the whole session forever, and that just happened to me the other day. It was really frustrating. :(
[+] [-] jolan|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sprsquish|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] meelash|15 years ago|reply