Exit insert mode when changing tabs

[terminalmage]

I like using the Vimium tab navigation shortcuts, but if I leave a tab in insert mode and use the normal Alt+number shortcuts to switch to a specific tab, then start cycling through tabs again using the Vimium shortcuts, the tab switching will stop once I get to a tab that is still in insert mode, until I hit Esc to go back to command mode. It would be nice if, when I leave a tab, it reverts back to command mode.

I understand this may not be a default behavior that many people want, but perhaps this could be something that is configurable in the Options menu.

[int3]

I'd like this, and I think it should be the default -- it seems to me that most people would not have a need for tabs to remain permanently in insert mode. @philc and @ilya, what do you guys think?

[philc]

I don't use insert mode much, but when I do it's because I want Vimium to pass keystrokes through to the underlying webpage. In that use case it's nice to have it persist until I unset it using esc.

[int3]

Hmm -- if I understand your use case correctly, you're explicitly activating insert mode to turn Vimium off on certain pages. How about having explicit insert mode be persistent, but implicit insert mode (enterInsertModeWithoutShowingIndicator) exit upon tab switch?

[philc]

Sounds like a good idea Jez, assuming the code doesn't become significantly harder to understand because of it.

[philc]

Let's keep an eye on this behavior after the next release to see if people consider this behavior a regression.

[int3]

After a few weeks of using this, I have to say that I am growing to dislike it. Particularly, when switching back-and-forth between two tabs quickly, I often forget that I am no longer in insert mode and I end up typing a bunch of Vimium commands. I'm thinking of two alternatives:

1. Exit insert mode only if the switched-to tab is not adjacent, i.e. the user used Alt- rather than Ctrl-Tab.
2. Have the equivalent of Alt-<num> as Vimium commands -- perhaps g-<num>. Since g-<num> will only work in normal mode, if the user is trained to rely on g-<num> rather than Alt-<num>, he will remember to explicitly exit insert mode every time before making a tab switch.

[philc]

The problem with #2 is we need to train the user. Cmd+# works for every OSX app and is ingrained in many users muscble memory. Since it's a universal shortcut and does exactly what g-# does, I would always prefer to use that instead of g-# for switching tabs.

[philc]

@int3, should we revert this for now?

[int3]

Apparently Pentadactyl also exits upon tab switch. I think the reason I haven't found it to be a problem there is because their inbuilt tab-switching commands work much better, so I'm in the habit of always exiting insert mode before switching tabs. In particular pressing Esc to exit insert mode doesn't change the state of the page (c.f. Facebook chat window issue), and more importantly, the keyboard shortcuts work all the time, so there's no need to resort to ctrl-tab to avoid getting stuck on partially loaded tabs. Let's back this out for now and reconsider when global hotkeys land.