We've been playing with the feature added to resolve gitlab-ce#24378 in 9.1, and I noticed that I can't switch between "Comment" and "Start discussion" until I start typing. This breaks my natural flow a little bit, since I would like to set the type before I write anything to ensure that I don't accidentally create the wrong thing. While gitlab-ce#29078 would alleviate this a little bit, it's not a general solution. ### Proposal Don't disable arrow portion of dropdown in order to switch comment type. Keep comment button disabled until text is entered to prevent submitting empty comments.  Here are the desirable states of the buttons for this proposal where the dropdown is always enabled. 1. Comment selected 1. Without input: `Comment` disabled, `Close issue` **enabled**. 1. With input: `Comment` enabled, `Comment & close merge request` enabled. 1. Start discussion selected 1. Without input: `Start discussion` disabled, `Start discussion & close merge request` **disabled**. 1. With input: `Start discussion` enabled, `Start discussion & close merge request` enabled. The same set of states work the same for the reopen case and also the same close and reopen cases for issues. This can almost be solved here: [app/assets/javascripts/gl_form.js#L34](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/1d5f2f9c333534b7004501bcfa52ca873d6a3403/app/assets/javascripts/gl_form.js#L34) Original code… The dropdown toggle button is `.js-note-new-discussion`. ```javascript gl.utils.disableButtonIfEmptyField(this.form.find('.js-note-text'), this.form.find('.js-comment-button, .js-note-new-discussion')); ``` Removing `.js-note-new-discussion` accomplishes 1.1, 1.2, & 2.2. But not 2.1. In this case the `Start discussion & close merge request` remains enabled with no input. ```javascript gl.utils.disableButtonIfEmptyField(this.form.find('.js-note-text'), this.form.find('.js-comment-button')); ``` Replacing `.js-note-new-discussion` with `.js-note-target-close` accomplishes 1.2, 2.1, & 2.2. But not 1.1. In this case, the `Close merge request` button is disabled. ```javascript gl.utils.disableButtonIfEmptyField(this.form.find('.js-note-text'), this.form.find('.js-comment-button, .js-note-target-close')); ``` ##### Relevant files - app/assets/javascripts/comment_type_toggle.js - app/assets/javascripts/gl_form.js - app/assets/javascripts/notes.js - app/views/projects/merge_requests/_discussion.html.haml - app/views/shared/notes/_comment_button.html.haml - app/views/shared/notes/_form.html.haml