1206804 - Reduce space usage of WebIDE side-panels for smaller screens

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(DevTools Graveyard :: WebIDE, defect, P3)

Description

[Hubert Figuiere [:hub]]

I use WebIDE on a laptop built-in screen. So I don't have a 20" screen.

Now WebIDE show 100% of the time information I don't need like the devices or the projects / apps wasting precious screen real estate for actual debugging.

This isn't working here.

I'm at revision '837fa5b51ffa' of Firefox.

Comment 1

[J. Ryan Stinnett [:jryans] (Use needinfo, replies may be slow)]

If the DevTools toolbox filled all the vertical space (like it did in sidebars off mode before) so that the sidebars are hidden behind it, would that work well for you?

Comment 2

[Hubert Figuiere [:hub]]

I see no point in changing this to what it is today. These where "popdown menus" where the only thing relevant to be seen permanently is what is currently selected.

Comment 3

[J. Ryan Stinnett [:jryans] (Use needinfo, replies may be slow)]

WebIDE is used by several different user types.  Not everyone is focused on the same app for a long period of time.  Some people switch apps frequently to complete various debugging tasks.

Aside from that, other benefits of sidebars include:

* Easier for new users to see options available since they aren't hidden in popup menus
* Less clicking required to see and change apps

Having said all that, it's certainly true it takes up width on the screen.

Please help me understand what's bothering you in more detail.  

Is the main issue that the toolbox is no longer full height?  If you are mostly using the toolbox, then we could make the toolbox take full height once again (like I said in comment 1), which would cover the sidebars anyway, so they would then have no effect on the space available to the toolbox.  (This is already true today, but you have to manually resize the toolbox vertically, whereas I am proposing we make it take up the full window by default like it used to before sidebars).

Or do you use the editor feature regularly, and so the sidebars are taking up too much horizontal space while editing?  The sidebars can be resized horizontally to make the smaller.

Comment 4

[Hubert Figuiere [:hub]]

(In reply to J. Ryan Stinnett [:jryans] (use ni?) from comment #3)
> WebIDE is used by several different user types.  Not everyone is focused on
> the same app for a long period of time.  Some people switch apps frequently
> to complete various debugging tasks.
> 
> Aside from that, other benefits of sidebars include:
> 
> * Easier for new users to see options available since they aren't hidden in
> popup menus

Given that is 101 and getting started I don't see the advantage wasting that much screen real estate. Don't we use the same pulldown button widget as in the rest of Firefox?

> * Less clicking required to see and change apps

Given that I have to shrink the view to be able to use the debugger, changing app / device requires click-drag to unshrink and then click. Instead of two clicks if it was a pulldown menu like before.
> 
> Having said all that, it's certainly true it takes up width on the screen.
> 
> Please help me understand what's bothering you in more detail.  

I have a small screen. What else?

Comment 5

[J. Ryan Stinnett [:jryans] (Use needinfo, replies may be slow)]

I have proposed several changes we could make in comment 1 and 3.  Can you please reply to them?

Comment 6

[Hubert Figuiere [:hub]]

I think I did reply what my problem was. All the information is there. See notably was to why your "it is less click" assertion is false in comment 4.

To me the right fix is REVERT. What was before was totally fine.

Comment 7

[J. Ryan Stinnett [:jryans] (Use needinfo, replies may be slow)]

(In reply to Hubert Figuiere [:hub] from comment #6)
> I think I did reply what my problem was. All the information is there. See
> notably was to why your "it is less click" assertion is false in comment 4.
> 
> To me the right fix is REVERT. What was before was totally fine.

I understand you feel that way, but not everyone does.  Additionally, there are planned new features that only function in the sidebar mode, so it is unlikely we'll revert it.

I am trying to come a compromise so that you can continue work efficiently in the sidebar mode.

Comment 8

[Hubert Figuiere [:hub]]

The do us a favour: run with a small screen resolution and think about your UI design again. The "frillions of pane" UI design has been bad since forever. Even with a large screen.

Comment 9

[Jeff Griffiths (:canuckistani) (:⚡︎)]

(In reply to Hubert Figuiere [:hub] from comment #8)
> The do us a favour: run with a small screen resolution and think about your
> UI design again. The "frillions of pane" UI design has been bad since
> forever. Even with a large screen.

The overwhelming feedback we got from the original design was that the mini-menus were counterintuitive to the point of being user hostile, particularly on non-Mac platforms.

I take your point, but this bug doesn't have very high priority for us wrt UX resources right now.

Comment 10

[Panos Astithas (he/him) [:past] (please ni?)]

(In reply to J. Ryan Stinnett [:jryans] (use ni?) from comment #3)
> Or do you use the editor feature regularly, and so the sidebars are taking
> up too much horizontal space while editing?  The sidebars can be resized
> horizontally to make the smaller.

Can we do the same thing as the debugger here, and provide the standard sidebar toggling button, as well as automatically collapsing sidebars? The following might be good ideas to try:

- automatically expand the projects pane after connecting to a runtime
- automatically collapse the runtime pane after connecting to a runtime
- automatically expand the runtime pane after selecting a project
- automatically collapse the projects pane after selecting a project

We could start with just a single side pane open if we knew what the current session's main use case is:
- editing/app development -> start with the projects pane open
- debugging inspecting -> start with the runtimes pane open

I have the feeling that we might even be able to start with both panes collapsed, if we could provide a couple of big buttons in the center pane to "Pick a project" or "Pick a runtime". I think that an optimized real-estate flow can be started if we know what the current session's main use case is.

Comment 11

[J. Ryan Stinnett [:jryans] (Use needinfo, replies may be slow)]

WebIDE is slated for removal (bug 1314811), so there are no plans to add to the current set of features.