235507 - thread pane column headers jiggle when changing sort order

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Scott MacGregor]

Try changing the sort order on some of the thread pane columns, note the
horizontal jiggling on some of the columns. It's almost like there isn't enough
padding for the "pushed" state of the thread pane column headers.

cc'ing stefan in case he'd like to work on this.

Comment 1

[Stefan Borggraefe]

This only happens with the new native style of Windows XP. Seamonkey has the
same bug when using the Classic theme. It occurs also in other dialogs like the
Cookie Manager.

Comment 2

[Scott MacGregor]

yeah this does seem like a bug in all tree columns when using the classic theme.
I wonder if we just have some padding or a margin style for a tree column header
that just doesn't leave enough room for the "pressed" state....

Comment 3

[Scott MacGregor]

or...in the worst case, it's not a style bug but a bug in our native theme
renderer  (*yuck*). Here's hoping it's a style bug.

Comment 4

[Scott MacGregor]

Attachment: possible thunderbird fix

When going to the active state, the padding was changing for a column header
and a column header image. 

This potential fix alleviates the "push" effect you see against the surrounding
tree cols, by making sure the padding does not change between the regular and
active states. I can't see a difference look wise in the UI from this fix. But
I do see the jumping effect go away.

Stefan, what do you think of this approach? 

Seamonkey patch for classic coming up.

Comment 5

[Scott MacGregor]

I should point out that there is still some jumping going around when you change
the sort column from one col to another. The column width extends to make room
for the sort indicator, pushing against the other columns. I think that should
be tracked in a different bug in case someone wants to go after that issue too.

This bug fixes the jumping that you see just when toggling the sort order on a
column back and forth.

Comment 6

[Scott MacGregor]

Attachment: patch for seamonkey classic theme

Comment 7

[Scott MacGregor]

cc'ing Jan too. He may have an opinion on this padding patch. Jan there are two
issues going on:

1) When a treecol goes into the active state, the padding was changing. This was
causing horizontal jiggling between the column headers as the selected column
header had its width change.

The above patch fixes this issue by ensuring the padding is consistent between
the active and regular states. I can now click the same column over and over
again and not see any jiggling in the UI.

2) There is still some residual jiggling when clicking between different
sortable columns. Removing / showing the sort indicator in a tree column causes
the width of the tree column to change. I wonder if there's an easy way for us
to make sure the width doesn't change regardless of the presence of a sort
indicator. That would fix the 2nd issue.

Comment 8

[Stefan Borggraefe]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Stefan, what do you think of this approach?

Sorry, I currently don't have a working Windows XP installation due to a HD
crash, so I can't test this patch. :-( Looks reasonable though.

Comment 9

[Scott MacGregor]

Attachment: thunderbird fix for the 2nd jiggle problem

This patch addresses the 2nd issue talked about in this bug report. We assign a
width to the image used as the sort indicator. Now when the indicator is not
showing, our overall width for the column header does not change so we don't
change the widths of the columns.

The triangle indicator on windows is 8 x 7 pixels. 

We use this same technique for tree twisties and the style width is one more
than the width of the twisty. I followed that same rule here by making the
width of the indicator one pixel wider than the width of the sort indicator.

Comment 10

[Jan Varga [:janv]]

sounds good to me, but could you attach a diff?

Comment 11

[Scott MacGregor]

Jan, there are patches attached to this bug, any issue in particular you were
looking for that you didn't see a patch?

Comment 12

[Jan Varga [:janv]]

the last attachment seems like entire file

Comment 13

[Scott MacGregor]

Attachment: thunderbird fix for the 2nd jiggle problem (force a fixed width on sort indicator image)

whoops...attached the wrong file....

Comment 14

[Scott MacGregor]

Attachment: updated patch for seamonkey which fixes both of the issues causing the jiggle

Comment 15

[Scott MacGregor]

since i filed this bug under thunderbird there is no 1.7 flag to ask for 1.7
approval. I'll send email.

Comment 16

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

a=asa (on behalf of drivers) for checkin to Mozilla 1.7

Comment 17

[David :Bienvenu]

Comment on attachment 144616 [details] [diff] [review]
updated patch for seamonkey which fixes both of the issues causing the jiggle

nice!

Comment 18

[Scott MacGregor]

fixed for seamonkey and thunderbird