On the heels of the fix to Bug 90823 relaunching mozilla or clicking on the doc icon generally works as expected on OS X. There's one case that isn't covered by that patch and that is the case when an OS X "modal" dialog is open. Since these windows aren't truely modal in the sense of one being able to work other app windows while they're open I think the relaunch behavior outlined bug 90823 should also work when no normal windows are open. Steps to recreate bug: (1) Launch Mozilla (2) Close Initial Window (browser, mail, composer, whatever) (3) Open Preferences Dialog (4) Relaunch App or click Dock Icon (5) Default window type should launch and come infront of prefs window Repeat but in step 2 minimize window - Results: minimized window should restore Fixing this bug would provide a way out of the 'stuck' with only a modal window problem in bug 21296, but wouldn't fix the underlying problem of menus not working.

The Aqua HIG don't really specify behavior in this case; since download windows and preferences aren't really modals, are they document windows? If so, then Mozilla shouldn't open a new window (see the section on opening new windows in this <a href="http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/macosx/Essentials/AquaHIGuidelines/AHIGWindows/index.html">here</a> Taking an informal survey of Apple applications, it seems that this behavior is implemented about half the time. Usually there is a good application-specific reason for doing it one way or another. It is interesting to note that Safari (v60, I would never admit to having a leaked copy of anything newer ;) will not open a new browser window if preferences is the only open window, but it will if the download manager is the only open window. I think this makes sense, although one might argue that opening even in that case is annoying. btw, there is a nonobvious workaround to bug 21296, which I posted in the related bug 100179: minimizing the "modal" will bring back the usual menu items, even after bring it back from the Dock.

My main problem is that with the new behavior I am constantly forced to close a browser window in order to open my mail/news window. I believe it would be better to be able to configure the behavior when the dock icon is clicked. Even if the choice was simply between the old behavior and the new behavior.

Sridhar: if it bothers you that much then I see two options - make mail your default window type if that's what you open more freqently, or file a new bug asking for some other config option to open browser when you do X and mail when you do Y. This bug isn't a place to air complaints. Eric: ok, perhaps Prefs wasn't the clearest example window to use. This bug happens with any non-sheet/non-document* window like the an active download. Its pretty clear from the bugs you linked (and a few others) that a real hard look needs to be done into how each of these "window" types should react. I think a good half of the windows out there *here I'm using "non-document" as any window that has 2 of the 3 buttons in the top right disabled and can't be closed normally (can't cmd-w, must hit ok/cancel or esc) and can't be maximized. . I know that's a very limiting definition of "document window" both technically and in terms of what mozilla windows are what (So this bug wouldn't affect DOM Inspector or Download Manager, but it would the Prefs panel or an active download).

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