Bug 493126

Summary:	Default Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab binding deviates from conventions
Product:	[Applications] konsole	Reporter:	Kisaragi Hiu <mail>
Component:	tabbar	Assignee:	Konsole Developer <konsole-devel>
Status:	REPORTED ---
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	christoph
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	24.08.0
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Arch Linux
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Kisaragi Hiu 2024-09-14 16:46:46 UTC

SUMMARY
Konsole's default binding for Ctrl+Tab is to go to the previously used tab (and Ctrl+Shift+Tab is the reverse of that).

In every other app that has tabs and which binds Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab to switch tabs, they are always bound to Next Tab / Previous Tab (tab to the right / tab to the left).

This default behavior is surprising and unintuitive.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open Konsole
2. Make sure the keybinds are reset to default (maybe save your own bindings before doing this)
3. Open two new tabs (so the tab order matters)
4. Use the common shortcut, Ctrl+Tab, to switch tabs

OBSERVED RESULT
Ctrl+Tab appears to switch to the tab to the left (as new tabs are opened to the right).
If new tabs are opened after this point, Ctrl+Tab appears to jump to some random tab until you realize it's jumping to the previously used tab.

EXPECTED RESULT
Ctrl+Tab switches to the tab to the right and Ctrl+Shift+Tab to the left, as is the case in all browsers, all tabbed file managers, all tabbed editors that use Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab, and all tabbed applications in general.


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Arch Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.0.80
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.7.0
Qt Version: 6.7.2
Kernel Version: 6.6.49-1-lts (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core Processor
Memory: 15.6 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 460 Graphics

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Comment 1 Christoph Cullmann 2024-12-05 22:16:46 UTC

I don't think that altering the defaults is a good idea. I and I assume most other longer time Konsole users are used to the current ones and the shift left/right swiching.

Comment 2 Kisaragi Hiu 2025-01-06 07:19:35 UTC

I do not understand that assumption. It's understandable that there would be users using Ctrl-Tab in Konsole like Alt-Tab elsewhere, but

- Alt-Tab shows you the window list, so if you don't remember which window is last used you at least still have visual feedback instead of having to simply tab through the entire list.
- There is no other application that uses Ctrl-Tab to do chronological tab switching

This current default was added in late 2018 [1] just as chronological tab switching was added. It can be useful, but as a default it's very unintuitive and not that old either.

[1]: https://invent.kde.org/utilities/konsole/-/commit/0709fdcbb5355d6dea2dd2b0e2ef9a635b698bc5