On 2017-10-03 13:36, Jeff Griffiths wrote:
Hi!
tl;dr we changed the default pixel value at which we overflow tabs,
and I want your feedback.
We just added a change to m-c[1] that does to things:
1. it reintroduces an old preference 'browser.tabs.tabMinWidth' that
contains a pixel value that controls the minimum width of a tab.
2. it sets the default value of the tab to 50, previously this value
was hard-coded at 100.
Work is being tracked in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1404465
We did this based on some early feedback from a few different sources
that people coming from chrome ( or in some cases, existing users )
thought that the Firefox behaviour of scrolling the tabstrip was
off-putting. We looked into this and I generally agree with the
comments: chrome's "infinite tabs visible" approach results in a much
higher usable/visible tab count in a given window than ours does. This
change puts us roughly at par.
To put this in numbers:
* in chrome I can open ~ 24 tabs before the tabstrip's usability is
degraded a lot
* in current firefox, I can open ~ 12 tabs before tabstrip scrolling kicks in
* with this change applied I can open 25 tabs with the pref value set to 50px
( Caveats: this was on the built-in display on my Macbook Pro with the
default theme, your mileage may vary, etc )
I want feedback on this change from these lists, and will also be
looking for feedback from the original sources of this complaint. In
particular:
1. do you prefer the existing behaviour or the new behaviour?
2. if you prefer a value for this pref different than 50 or 100, what
is it? Why?
One aspect that I would like to stress about this change: most
existing Firefox users will never see it, because they are unlikely to
open m,ore than 10 tabs at any one time. So what we are really talking
about is a change that will trade being able to see more tabs vs being
able to read more text in each tab title.
I prefer the old behavior. The Chrome behavior is terrible, because
with too many tabs open, you can't see any of them, ever. With a
scrolling tab bar, you can at least see all of them by scrolling. The
Chrome behavior is most definitely NOT "infinite tabs visible". It is
"infinite tabs invisible".
But actually I prefer neither. What I actually prefer is what Tab Mix
Plus has provided for years but which will disappear in Firefox 57,
which is a multi-row tab bar that scrolls vertically, not horizontally.
The difference between 12 and 24 tabs is meaningless. My usage of
Firefox involves large numbers of tabs, frequently exceeding 1000. This
use case is quite manageable with a combination of extensions (e.g., Tab
Mix Plus, Tab Groups Manager, BarTab). But, due to extension breakage,
it is so poorly supported by post-57 Firefox that I have no intention of
upgrading, unless at some future time it becomes possible for extensions
to again do what they have been able to do for years and which is being
deliberately broken by Firefox 57.
That's my two cents.
--
Brendan Barnwell
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no
path, and leave a trail."
--author unknown
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