206175 - Tabs (default Firefox theme) need a visual redesign

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Firefox :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Prognathous]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030516 Mozilla Firebird/0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030516 Mozilla Firebird/0.6

Firebird 0.6 tabs are uglier than Mozilla's and provide less feedback.

1. The active tab should use a different color than inactive tabs.
2. The active tab should have a horizontal baseline, spanning the entire width
of the window. Much like real-life tabs and files.
3. Tabs should have rounded corners (or ones that are slightly cut-off, as in
Mozilla). This is much more visibly appealing than square-looking tabs.

Prog.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1

[Prognathous]

Attachment: Tabs: Mozilla 1.3.1 vs. Firebird 0.6

A screenshot showing the refined look and feel of Mozilla tabs as opposed to
Firebird's

Comment 2

[Christopher Stone]

I think it would be neat if there were some animation when loading a page in the
tab.  For example the "Loading..." could animate between "Loading.. ", "Loading
..", and "Loading. ."  Or perhaps you could apply some graphical tweaks to the
icon in the tab while it is loading to give a better indication that the page is
still loading.

Comment 3

[David Tenser [:djst]]

-> Invalid.

You are comparing a theme with native widgets with the Mozilla "Modern" theme,
which is not using native widgets. 

The active tab has bold text, which is sufficient. Other themes (such as the
Phoenity Modern theme) has different colors.

Comment 4

[Prognathous]

> You are comparing a theme with native widgets with the Mozilla "Modern" theme,
> which is not using native widgets

I'm comparing what is clearly a far better design, regardless of it being native
or not (does it make the current Firebird solution any better?)

> The active tab has bold text, which is sufficient.

Are we aiming at sufficiency or at excellence? don't you yourself find the
modern Mozilla to be clearer, better looking and more effective than current
Firebird?

What about point #2 and point #3? there's more to my suggestion than just color
scheme...

If you wish, you can regard the title of this RFE as "Tabs (default Firebird
theme) need a visual redesign". The fact remains the same: Mozilla/Modern tabs
are much better looking and provide better feedback than the default Firebird.

Prog.

Comment 5

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

verified.

Comment 6

[Prognathous]

I wonder how exactly can you verify this RFE as INVALID when most of my points
weren't answered? see comment #4

Prog.

Comment 7

[Prognathous]

Simon, I just noticed that you weren't CCed. Please read my previous comment.

Thanks,

Prog.

Comment 8

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

1. The Firebird aims to be as native as it can be.
2. Therefore your remarks for a redesign (as good as they are) simply aren't 
   valid, because the project takes a different approach here.
3. If a user wants a different design, there are dozens of themes available.
4. A very respected community member (and a member of the Firebird developer core 
   team) has already made the decision to mark this bug INVALID and that's the end 
   of it.

Comment 9

[Prognathous]

For the record, the same problems exists with Winstripe/Pinstripe tabs in
Firefox 1.0.

Prog.