Closed Bug 43797 Opened 24 years ago Closed 23 years ago

Abolish the taskbar (and move component bar to status bar)

Categories

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect, P2)

defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

VERIFIED FIXED
mozilla0.9.1

People

(Reporter: hsivonen, Assigned: andreww)

References

()

Details

Attachments

(3 files)

Build 2000062408



The Taskbar reserves screen real estate. However, the Taskbar only duplicates 

functionality available in the menus. The Taskbar seems unnecessary. Why is it there? 

Could it be removed?



New windows can be opened using the File menu.

Switching between the components can be done using the Tasks menu.

Mozilla Webtools can be accessed using the personal toolbar or bookmarks

Open windows are listed in the Tasks menu.
Click View -> Toolbars -> Taskbar
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 24 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
Reopening. Henri knows very well that the taskbar can be turned off, but that's 
not the point. The point is that -- in non-commercial builds, anyway -- the 
taskbar serves no useful purpose.
* The component bar should be an optional part of the status bar, as it was in
  4.x.
* The `Mozilla' links will be rendered redundant as soon as the new set of
  default bookmarks is introduced (see bug 20862).
* The `Open Windows' menu can be better implemented as a main menu, or (as it is
  now) as the bottom section of the Tasks menu.

The taskbar serves so little purpose, in the non-commercial version of Mozilla, 
that the screen real estate it occupies would be better used for content.
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Depends on: 20862
Resolution: INVALID → ---
Summary: Taskbar is redundant → Remove taskbar in non-commercial version
I agree entirely.  I'd even go as far as to say remove it from the comm builds 
as well, but I know netscape needs it so they can stuff it full with commercial 
crap [which, IMHO, is a very big mistake]
forgot to cc myself - sorry for spam
The *only* purpose it serves is 1-click access to mail/composer/addresses. 4.7
was much superior in including this on the status bar. It's pretty rediculous to
take make a whole toolbar just to house those 4 icons.

Open Windows are listed in the bottom of the tasks menu, and hard-coding
'bookmarks' into the chrome as the Mozilla pull-up does serves no purpose (to
users).
As I said, it has much more of a purpose in the commercial builds...namely so 
that it can be stuffed with commercial junk

I do agree that it needs to go byebye from the Mozilla builds, though.
Is this bug just to completely remove the taskbar or to move the four icons 
[the component bar] from the taskbar to the statusbar as 4x had it, and then 
remove the taskbar?  if the latter, please clarify the summary line
Reassigning to Ben Goodger.
Assignee: bdonohoe → ben
Status: REOPENED → NEW
Resummarizing as requested.
Summary: Remove taskbar in non-commercial version → Abolish the taskbar (and move component bar to status bar)
I'd appreciate it if the screen real estate taken by the component bar was allocated to 
meta data display instead. I don't use the component bar. However, the component bar 
seems to be quite popular even though you could switch between the components using 
the Tasks menu and keyboard shortcuts could be added to the relevant menu items.

How about adding an ability to hide the component bar without hiding the entire status 
bar?
This was discussed in the newsgroup, and it seems as if it would be a fair 
amount of work to do it.

I, for one, would be highly interested in hearing marketing's response to this 
toolbar.  For example, a good question to answer: why the HELL do we have this 
extra taskbar?  I find it sick that we're devoting an entire toolbar to 
marketing junk...furthermore, it's *extremely* obvious to the enduser that the 
entire point of the toolbar is to stuff it full of commercial junk.  I cannot 
believe we are willing to sacrifice usability and screen real estate so 
marketing can throw its crap on the screen.  This taskbar is very much standing 
in the way of making the classic skin resemble Navigator 4.x's UI. 

German: can you provide one GOOD reason why we are including this taskbar, from 
a UI/UE/Usability standpoint?  Is it true that marketing speaks louder than 
user experience at Netscape?

And John, your comments on it?  Please don't pull out usability test this and 
survey that.  I am speaking based on a *multitude* of indepedent comments I've 
seen since PR1, all of which said basically the same thing: "at least IE 
doesn't try to force marketing crap on you the minute you open their browser."  
This is the first thing people notice when they open the browser -- that 
Netscape has made their browser a full-force ad campaign.

I realize that Netscape needs to make money, but I don't think embedding little 
advertisements in its browser is the way to go about doing that.  Please, at 
the very list, make the toolbar hidden by default.  In a company that truly 
cares about its customers and its product's success, usability and user 
experience speak louder than the marketing department.
s/list/least in my last comment. sorry.
As a side note, MozillaZine (http://www.mozillazine.org) is running a very 
similar poll right now [regarding whether there should be a single task- & 
status- bar a la nav4, or if things should remain as they are now]

As of right now, the results:
  
  Of 406 people total, only 29% (120 people) were fine with the current setup.  
Meanwhile, 70% (286 people) preferred a single status bar.
Severity: normal → enhancement
Note that there are legitimate uses for this bar, it's just that no  one has 
chosen to implement them, e.g.

- 'popup assistant' area that brings up a small popup region to offer 
assistance with complex tasks, or tasks that can be sped up (form 
submission, etc... for example, you could convert Wallet to use this 
feature, then disable Assistant notifications, and then you'd never be 
asked "Do you want to save..." for form submissions ever again'
I'm sure there are more. 

In the future, I want us to gain the ability for users to add and remove 
toolbars at will, and populate them with whatever they see fit. 
The thing is most people use the task switcher buttons (Navigator, Mail, Address 
Book, Composer) but they don't use the 'Mozilla' or 'Open Windows' menus. The 
'Mozilla' menu is not used as links in the personal toolbar folder are more 
convienient and customisable and the 'Open Windows' serves no purpose as most 
operating systems/window managers have a way of switching between open windows 
fairly easily (Windows, KDE, Gnome taskbar, etc).

As blake says there's no reason for this bar apart from commercial crap in the 
Netscape 6 builds (which I think is a very bad idea from a commercial point of 
view, it'll put many people off using the browser - remember many people don't 
know how to disable the sidebar so they won't have a chance in hell of disabling 
the taskbar - much better to have the commercial links in the personal toolbar 
only (fully customisable of course). that's where links should be and always 
have been). Also many people who know how to disable the taskbar won't do so 
because they use the app switcher buttons.

OK Ben comes up with some interesting possibilities but in the current state the 
tasbar should go and the app switcher buttons should become detachable again and 
dockable to the status bar. If the taskbar ever does then make a return you can 
then dock the app buttons to either the status bar the task bar be floating or 
non-existant.
Ben, I see your point but what I don't understand is why we're trying to stock 
this release with *everything* we're going to need in the future.  I see this 
again and again....I fully realize it's important to prepare for the future, 
but users DO expect to see SOME change and progression between releases...the 
first release of something shouldn't contain everything it's ever going to have 
throughout its life.

If there's something useful for this bar _NOW_, let's implement it.  If not, 
there's no need to blind the user with advertisements.  I'm sure most users 
would prefer having to experience the "shock" when the next release contains 
something that the former one didn't rather than having a little advertisement 
bar at the bottom of their screen stealing their space just to prepare for 
future releases.
One minor thing, if we do abolish the taskbar I think the statusbar should take
the position the taskbar does now (i.e. is under both the browser window and the
sidebar and not just the browser window like the current status bar).
Blake, David, its not our concern at all what NSCP choose to do with 
their 'Netscape 6.0' product, or about their UI design. This bug is regarding 
removing it from the Mozilla browser. If derivative browsers choose to add a 
bar titled 'taskbar', they are more then welcome to.

The correct solution for Mozilla is adding the ability for themes to create 
their own taskbars. If 'modern' chooses to do something useful with a theme-
created toolbar named 'taskbar', so be it. Ben proposed a potentially useful 
use for a toolbar.

This method also wouldn't interfere with NSCP's plans. They could simply modify 
the default theme to include their toolbar with links to partner sites. This 
gives power users the ability to remove this bar by switching to another theme. 
I think thats a pretty damned good compromise.
This bug is not about Netscape 6--this bug is about the Mozilla.org builds. Considering 
the Mozilla.org builds, this is not merely an enhancement.

Also, I don't think potential future features that might go in the Taskbar warrant keeping 
the Taskbar as it is now. If there really are such features, let's discuss them in n.p.m.ui. 
The Taskbar might not be the optimal place for such features.
Severity: enhancement → normal
In Netscape 4.x, you could not get rid of the component bar, something that 
annoyed me quite a bit.  OK, you could either have them in the status bar, or 
floating somewhere, covering something up (two bad choices).  In Mozilla, 
however, you can now get rid of the component bar by eliminating the Taskbar.  I 
see this as a positive for Mozilla that I would not like to lose.  If the 
compoinents were on the atatus bar, some URLs (the really long ones) wouldn't be 
seen in their entirety.  Personnally I want my browser to be my browser, and 
that's all, so anything that ties the other components into the browser is a bad 
idea.  Just my $ .02
OK, I've watched discussion here, in newsgroups, and elsewhere, and it 
seems almost everyone is pretty much in agreement that the taskbar provides no 
useful purpose in Mozilla. I'm a bit busy just now, but if anyone provides a 
patch to *cleanly* remove the taskbar, mozilla will take it. 
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
`if anyone provides a patch ... mozilla will take it' == helpwanted.

Other bugs which have been alluded to in this bug:
* `Move statusbar under the sidebar' (bug 44731)
* `metadata attributes not accessible to use' (bug 1995).
Keywords: helpwanted
I'd suggest that this patch doesn't just remove the taskbar it also adds the
icons for the various mozilla components (Navigator, Mail, Composer and Address
Book) to the status bar like in Communicator 4.x and preferably to have a tab
you can click that'll make the bar 'float' as in communicator.

The View -> Toolbars -> Taskbar menu item could then be replaced with an option
to make the communicator style component bar invisible.
I'll try to hack out a clean patch. Remind me in a couple days when I get home.

Ben: sorry to bother, but was just wondering: what ever came of that screenshot 
you had not all that long ago with the status text and progress meter 
combined?  Did that new status bar also contain the component bar?
I agree that it looks very useless in Mozilla. It will stay for Netscape 6 

though, as Netscape has a bunch of 'useful services' integrated at this location, 

thus provising a separation between 'personal' space (bookmarks bar) and 'built-

in' navigation aids for the 'typical Netscape customer'.

For Mozilla I would recommend that the patch consider to put the status bar only 

underneath the content area as the status only applies to that, not the sidebar 

(like security or % loading)

Fixed links are always a bad idea (which is what these 'useful services' are -
links to various netcenter services). It means if netscape stops offering a
service or changes the URL then the customer is left with a link that they can't
use anymore, I think making the taskbar customisable should happen if they're
planning to keep it for NS6, possibly right click the taskbar and you'll get a
list of Netscape approved services and you can select which ones you want on
your taskbar. This would make it similar in customisability to the sidebar.

But Netscape has to make money with this program so I'm glad that they're doing
it with something that can easily be switched off by the knowledgeable user.

We then have the problem with what do do with the component buttons if in
Mozilla they're moved to the status bar but in Netscape 6 they stay in the
taskbar. If a user wants to remove the taskbar but keep the component buttons
would there be an option to put them on the statusbar in Netscape 6?
Re David Hallowell's last comments: Netscape 6 UI design is, to my 
understanding, irrelevant here. If they want to use fixed links...

Re germans previous comments, I agree status bar should be only under the 
content area, as that's what it concerns... if you want it longer, you know 
what you can do with the sidebar...

Re David Hallowell's second to last comment (concerning the detachable 
component bar): are you saying someone actually used this horrid feature of 
4.x? =) I'd suggest that if these type of detachable tabs aren't already 
available to chrome, we don't waste time creating them. Taskmenu and hotkeys 
are plenty, anyway... everyone knows the component bar is just there to look 
pretty.
I'm beginning to have second thoughts.

As much as I dislike the space the taskbar uses, it has a clearly defined role - 
taskbar. Place to launch apps. This does not merge well with the statusbar, 
which has been refined to display only the status of the window above it: 
security, load progress, etc. It seems that adding task switching to the 
statusbar would muddle the purpose. Also, the statusbar has limited horizontal 
space. Can we come up with a better solution than either the current layout or 
simple integration? 
Here we go again...

>Place to launch apps.

No need. Mozilla components can be accessed via the menubar. Other apps can be
accessed in the OS standard ways.

>This does not merge well with the statusbar,

No need to put it in the status bar. The functionality is already available via
the menubar.

>Can we come up with a better solution than either the current layout or
>simple integration?

Yes. Removing the taskbar and accessing the components via menus or the related
keyboard shorcuts. The folks who are too much in a hurry to use the menus should
be able to memorize a couple of keyboard shortcuts.
Bleh. The menubar is at the top of the window. The component bar is elsewhere.
Ben, how about autohide? If the buttons are only visible when you move your 
mouse into the area then they don't eat space. One warning: if this is the 
approach we take, the buttons can not hide other buttons [offline, security].  

fwiw, I agree there is too little space in the status bar to go cramming these 
extra items. But I do like having access to them.
<sigh>I can't imagine anyone listening to me.
Timeless: Auto-hide can only work in a non-annoying way if two conditions are 
met. First, the auto-hidden item must be at an edge of the screen. And second, 
the item is shown based on the cursor's speed (rather than just its position). 
Both of these two conditions are required, in order to ensure that the user 
doesn't open the auto-hidden item accidentally (and then have to go through 
contortions waiting for it to disappear). But neither of these conditions could 
be met by anything in Mozilla in the near future. (In fact, I've never known them 
to be met properly in *any* software.)

I see no reason why the component bar (if you really think we still need one) 
can't work the same way as it did in 4.x -- if you have a window that's too small 
for it to fit in the status bar, then click on its grippy and it turns into its 
own little window. (Yes I know we don't have windoids yet, but still.)

Seamonkey is not a Launcher, an Apple menu, a Dock, a Wharf, or a Start menu. The 
role of launching apps should be left to software which is devoted to that 
purpose, and which does it better than a Seamonkey taskbar ever could.
*** Bug 48964 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
New bookmarks file is checked in, nothing blocking progress here.

Can themes completly remove the task bar/give it a completly seperate function,
or are they mere skins? If its more then a skin, one of Blue, modern, and
classic should show this, as they are currently all just skins.
Themes could hide the taskbar, but not remove it completely. And as far as I 
know, themes couldn't move the component bar from the taskbar to the status bar.
*** Bug 53016 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Has anyone made any progress on this?
Ben's last report was a WONTFIX and I support that.

If you have objections, asking silly questions here won't change things. Or you 
could offer a ui spec and explain why it would satisfy eveyone.
Target Milestone: --- → Future
Ben's last report was not a WONTFIX, and no-one has been asking silly questions.

Here's a UI spec:
|
| Work exactly the same way as 4.x.

It's not up to us to explain why it would satisfy `everyone', because we're not 
the ones who are proposing any change from the 4.x design. It is up to those who 
changed the design for this version of Mozilla to explain how the new design 
improves usability for Mozilla users. And so far, they have utterly failed to do 
that.
One point:
Currently, the icon for the Mail in the componet bar is the only place where you
can put alert signal when a new mail has arrived.  Whatever happens to the
component bar in this bug, there should always be a place where you keep this
information visible to the user.
I understand that this bug is labeled "future," but I just want to add 
something. Has anyone used MS Word 2000? Notice that in this app, the Standard 
and Formatting toolbars are combined, but the user is able to drag out and 
separate them. Isn't there a way that you can add functionality to move 
toolbars around and combine them in this way? If this functionality can be 
done, those people that want it separate can just drag it out and place it 
anywhere, even floating. (In 4.x, it's halfway there - the component bar can be 
dragged out, but can't be recombined like MS Word.)
Jeffrey, I think that's bug 17306.
and bug 48926.
Chaning the qa contact on these bugs to me. MPT will be moving to the 
owner of this component shortly. I would like to thank him for all his hard 
work as he moves roles in mozilla.org...Yada, Yada, Yada...
QA Contact: mpt → zach
If we can't remove it for 1.0, can we at least change the default to not display it?
Nominating for Mozilla 0.9 although may be a bit late for that.
I believe that this change should be made before 1.0 or after 1.0, this is so
that people have a chance to comment on this change before 1.0 is released. If
that is not possible then this change shouldn't be made till after 1.0
Keywords: mozilla0.9
bug 76930 was filed by netscape people and is marked 0.9.1 (with screenshot).
The "mozilla" tab thing is going
As bug 76930 has a target milestone set for it as well as an nsbeta1+ keyword
I'll mark this a dup of that bug.

As it has an nsbeta1+ keyword it means that Netscape are making it a priority to
get rid of this bar :)

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 76930 ***
Status: ASSIGNED → RESOLVED
Closed: 24 years ago23 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
Well then, `netscape people' should perhaps learn to not file duplicates of 
very well-known bugs. Keywords and milestones are easily transferred from one 
bug to another; discussion, CC list, and votes are not.
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Component: User Interface Design → XP Apps: GUI Features
Priority: P3 → P2
Resolution: DUPLICATE → ---
Target Milestone: Future → mozilla0.9.1
*** Bug 76930 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
--> Andrew
Assignee: ben → andreww
Status: REOPENED → NEW
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
I actually read most of the comments so my remarks/suggestions are based on them.  
My suggestion is:
1. Put the component bar on the status bar.
2. Add ability to disable component bar similar to "go" button from preferences.

The component bar is necessary to provide a visual determination of mail
"status" and easy access to the addressbook, navigator and mail

For those people who dislike the component bar, they can disable it through
preferences.

The end result is more screen space for those who hide the taskbar and still
want to use the component bar. And those who dislike the component bar can
disable it.  This should have no impact on the (use/future use) of the taskbar.
Since I've used navigator, there has only been a handful of times that I needed
to see the entire URL from the status bar so in my situation I only need to know
that the page is loading and that it is "Done" .
The entire status bar should be "hideable".  But that may be another bug.
This will have a major impact on existing themes, as it will break most/all of
them, e.g. my EarlyBlue skin fits perfectly with current design.
If we want to have merged bars in 1.0, and want to have a couple of good skins
in time for 1.0, we should do the change early enough for theme builders to keep up.
Can you live with the status bar underneath the sidebar, rather than to the
right as it stands now? If so, recent XUL changes will make this easier to
implement.
Wrap a named vbox around the status bar and taskbar. Then should a skin wish, it
could orient the box horizontallly and hide any taskbar elements of its choice.
This needs to be done in 14 windows :-(
<vbox id="statustaskbox">
  <statusbar id="status-bar" class="chromeclass-status"> ...
  </statusbar>
  <box id="taskbar" class="chromeclass-extrachrome toolbox-bottom"/>
</vbox>
There are bugs on rearrangeable and floating toolbars I think they're the real 
solution.
Im working on this right now, basing my work on Ben Goodger's efforts to do
this. It should be ready to check in within a few days.

The work on creating custom toolbars, etc. is definitely a good thing and at
some point in the future this may be ported to that, but the crucial thing right
now is to get the taskbar out and move the status bar down.  I have this working
already in about 75% of the needed windows.

I'm basically taking Ben's work and applying and updating it since his patches
were 2 months old :)


Blocks: 78983
- the component-bar element is a <statusbarpanel/> in tasksOverlay.xul, but is a
<box/> in all the files that overlay it. It should probably be a
<statusbarpanel/> everywhere.

- in mailWindow.js you shouldn't need to write code for hiding/showing the
progressmeter, as that will be handled via xbl

- did you intend to make the change in msgMail3PaneWindow.js, and if so, why?

- what's with all the new <resizer/> elements in the statusbar? Do we support
that tag yet?
[s]r=hyatt
fixes checked into tree.
Status: ASSIGNED → RESOLVED
Closed: 23 years ago23 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
*** Bug 79699 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This was not done correctly in Composer xul. It now doesn't show the taskbar
components at all (both Modern and Classic themes.)
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Resolution: FIXED → ---
Isn't that the point of this bug, to not have a taskbar?  Composer looks fine to
me.  I'll attach a screenshot, from 2001050904.
Is there a way to move the progress bar to the left next to the icons ? My
thinking is it should be:
[online/offline] [component icons] [progress bar] [status]              [security]
or something like that, just move the progress bar to the left. Adding myself to
the CC list...
The progress bar is missing from mail/news
cant move progressbar back to the left of the status text because it will soon
be having the behavior of collapsing alltogether when it's unused.  This would
cause the status text to jump around too much when pages load and stuff. It's
going to collapse when not used so that space it normally takes up can be used
by the status text for long urls.


Looking into the progressmeter issue.
This looks good in Modern but has problems in Classic.  The taskbar icons need 
to have the same raised look as the rest of the statusbar.
Yeah I agree re- the classic issue. The component buttons look like they are all
at a lower level than the rest of the bar. Filing bugs on myself.
Is it possible to make seperators between the graphics (probably make it look
nicer) something like [online/offline icon] | [hot launch icons] | [Document
text space (hyperlink, loading text info) | [status bar] | [security icon] (and
why is there a gap in that corner? it looks like the realestate is sold, but
nothing is going to be posessed there. Quick, someone put mozilla in that
corner, breathing fire or something!)

Sorry for the spam, but it just looks like a rushed job to get it done and over
with. I'm not really picky about this bug since I always run at 1024x768. Next
thing you know, someone will be bitching to have a full screen mode like IE (evil)
But thanks for freeing up the space! :)
Whatever the final plan is, make sure if the component bar isn't being removed
all together, it's disableable. I hated the room it took up in 4.x, as I
absolutly positively *NEVER* intend to use Mozilla/Netscapes Mail or Composer
functions.

Also, might be nice to have it disableable down to just a single 'new mail'
indicator (similar to the page is secure/insecure lock icon). Course, this
breaks the status bar only displaying information relevant to the page above it.
that area is for the sizing widget. adjusting the contents of the component bar 
should be a separate bug. although anyone can change the xul if they want to.  
i think view>toolbars> lets you hide the component bar. if not i'm sure it 
will.
By putting the status bar under the sidebar, you are implying that the security 
lock applies to the sidebar. I think this is very incorrect and is a potential 
security issue. Also, you are effectively making room for one less tab in the 
sidebar. 

I would like to see the component bar go away. Almost all of the "clickable" 
things in mozilla are at the top, so if the component bar must exist why don't 
you put it near the top. I can think of two areas: 1. The Personal ToolBar (It 
seems that there will be people that want the component bar and those who 
won't; that is, it will be a "personal preference" which seems to go 
with "personal toolbar") and (2) The right side of the menu bar (there is 
plenty of room, especially if/when "Debug" and "QA" get removed).

Finally, you should move the "You are connected" button directly to the right 
of the security lock. If you put it on the right-hand-side of the status bar 
then it will draw less attention than if it is on the left-hand-side as it is 
now. Also, IE puts its indicator on the right-hand-side, so it is consistent 
with IE. NN 4.X puts the "You are connected" button right next to the security 
lock, so it is consistent with NN 4.X.
Charlie reopened this bug on the premise that composer was not working, but in
fact it is. So I'm marking this bug fixed again. If you have issues with the
placement of elements on the status bar or other features, etc. Please file new
bugs as they are outside the scope of this particular bug ( which was simply to
remove the taskbar and slide the status bar down - keeping the component bar)

If you find bugs on the status bar - with it not working properly (already a bug
on progressmeter not showing up in messenger and patch is ready) please file new
bugs on me.  

Status: REOPENED → RESOLVED
Closed: 23 years ago23 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
verify
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
the following was checked in under this bug:

http://bonsai.mozilla.org/cvsview2.cgi?
diff_mode=context&whitespace_mode=show&file=mail3PaneWindowVertLayout.xul&root=/
cvsroot&subdir=mozilla/mailnews/base/resources/content&command=DIFF_FRAMESET&rev
1=1.54&rev2=1.55

hidden="true" was added to the total and unread message count items in the 
alternative 3 pane.  (they're not hidden in messenger.xul)

I've fixed it.  there's a bug logged, I'll cc andrew on it.
Mass removing self from CC list.
Now I feel sumb because I have to add back. Sorry for the spam.
Product: Core → Mozilla Application Suite
Component: XP Apps: GUI Features → UI Design
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