1387877 - Make tabs rectangular (remove tab curve)

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Theme, enhancement)

Description

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

This is a port of bug 1349555.

Comment 1

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Attachment: squaredTabs.patch

There is a lot of removals. The new tabs are a lot simpler than the curved ones.

There are some issues which aren't TB's fault, FX has them too. For example when going from fullscreen to normal window on top is a 1px gap for around one second. I'm subscribed to the bugs and will fix them in TB, if not a toolkit bug, after FX has fixed them.

Comment 2

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Attachment: Mac screenshot

For info how it looks on Mac. We can later decide if we want the black titlebar like FX (I'm more against it).

Comment 3

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Comment on attachment 8894261 [details] [diff] [review]
squaredTabs.patch

Truly terrible but working. I tried mail tabs, add-ons manager, options in tab, events in tab, gloda.

Comment 4

[:aceman]

Comment on attachment 8894261 [details] [diff] [review]
squaredTabs.patch

Review of attachment 8894261 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Nice picture removal :)
Nice square tabs (MS Edge, we are coming :)).
What's that expanding-line effect on the top of the tab when hovered?
Works for me on Linux.

Comment 5

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

(In reply to :aceman from comment #4)
> Comment on attachment 8894261 [details] [diff] [review]
> squaredTabs.patch
> 
> Review of attachment 8894261 [details] [diff] [review]:
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Nice picture removal :)

This should make the interface a bit faster. :) From bug 1349555 comment 41:

Improvements:
  5%  Images summary linux64-stylo opt stylo     8,039,664.45 -> 7,641,575.20

> Nice square tabs (MS Edge, we are coming :)).

We couls add radii on top of the tabs to be not so edgy.

> What's that expanding-line effect on the top of the tab when hovered?

It's like on FX. This is only eye candy.

Comment 6

[:aceman]

(In reply to Richard Marti (:Paenglab) from comment #5)
> > Nice square tabs (MS Edge, we are coming :)).
> 
> We couls add radii on top of the tabs to be not so edgy.

Maybe a bit round on top like in Firefox 4. It seems Jorg also didn't like totally square.

Comment 7

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

(In reply to Richard Marti (:Paenglab) from comment #5)
> We could add radii on top of the tabs to be not so edgy.
Yes, can you do that please to see how it looks.

Comment 8

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Attachment: squaredTabsWith10pxRadii.patch

This patch gives the tabs 10px top radii. 10px is around a third of the tab height.

Comment 9

[Jim Porter (:squib)]

Thanks for this, Richard!

As for the patch, I strongly advocate that we try to just follow along with Firefox rather than trying to make our own slightly-modified version. It'll be easier to track upcoming changes, and we can benefit indirectly from the fact that Firefox has a sizable team of visual designers dedicated to the project. The consistency between Firefox and Thunderbird is an added benefit, of course.

Comment 10

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Jim, we are not so fans of this very edgy design. It reminds too much to MS Edge to me. The difference in code are only 4 lines including the comment.

It's nice Firefox has a sizable team of visual designers but we are also inconsistent on the icons and I don't think they would help us in this. So we have to hope we can use the Monterail icons in our default theme.

Comment 11

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

(In reply to Jim Porter (:squib) from comment #9)
> As for the patch, I strongly advocate that we try to just follow along with
> Firefox rather than trying to make our own slightly-modified version.
We could start a political discussion on the relationship of FF and TB, but let's not ;-)

> It'll be easier to track upcoming changes, ...
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?oldid=8894261&action=interdiff&newid=8894574&headers=1
I think we can handle three lines of differences.

> ... and we can benefit indirectly from the
> fact that Firefox has a sizable team of visual designers dedicated to the
> project.
Hmm, the user reaction to the square tabs remains to be seen, Australis, supposedly also done by a sizeable team of visual designers wasn't a 100% success either. But we're again in a political discussion.

> The consistency between Firefox and Thunderbird is an added benefit, of course.
More political discussion. Sure, so far "Mozilla Thunderbird" is Mozilla software, but how is TB actually treated within Mozilla?

All that said, the rounded edges look terrible and don't fit well into the overall theme. I tried with 4px margin and that doesn't look good either.

So let's just all return to where SeaMonkey has always been, and I'll get the flare jeans out of the closet, perhaps they become fashionable again one day.

Note: Comment to be taken with a grain of humour, no offence intended ;-)

Comment 12

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Comment on attachment 8894574 [details] [diff] [review]
squaredTabsWith10pxRadii.patch

Thanks for trying, Richard. I hardly ever give r- or f-, so I'll just to it here since I don't like it, it doesn't make the squares better.

Comment 13

[:aceman]

4px radius would work for me.

Comment 14

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Attachment: Screenshot with 4px radius

Looks bad on Windows, doesn't it?

Comment 15

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Comment on attachment 8894574 [details] [diff] [review]
squaredTabsWith10pxRadii.patch

Okay, we stay on 0px. Then also Jim is happy. :)

Comment 16

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/dbb2f2dcf205
Make tabs rectangular (remove tab curve). r=aceman,jorgk

Comment 17

[:aceman]

(In reply to Jorg K (GMT+2) from comment #14)
> Looks bad on Windows, doesn't it?
No, it doesn't. It's similar to what Firefox had in the past, e.g. http://ec.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/tabs-bottom-firefox4.png .

Comment 18

[Jim Porter (:squib)]

That ignores the issues with the top border, which does indeed look bad when you try to round the corners of Photon tabs.

Comment 19

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Right, what Jim said.

Comment 20

[:aceman]

What issue with top border? That it doesn't span full width? I noticed that but it's not a problem.

Comment 21

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Well, adding the radius only on top is a problem, it looks like
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tits%20on%20a%20Fish (excuse my English).
The FF 4 tabs from comment #17 are different, they have space between them and there is a curve at the bottom of the active tab, too. So I'm not against the FF 4 look, which most likely was also designed by a "sizeable team of visual designers". But that can't be achieved by just adding a little radius at the top.

Let's just face it, and please, Richard, no offence intended: The nicest look won't hide all the apparent problems we have in the 15+ y/o legacy code, like you still can't search e-mail reliably (doesn't decode base64 *before* searching, bug in the too hard basket). I think the users wouldn't care about the looks if at least the software worked as expected.

Anyway, all off-topic and another political discussion :-(