648218 - (Re-)Add browser.tabs.tabMinWidth and browser.tabs.tabMaxWidth to about:config options

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, enhancement)

Description

[Adam Purkrt]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0

Recently, browser.tabs.tabMinWidth and browser.tabs.tabMaxWidth have been removed from about:config options, see

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=574654

I would like to kindly ask to revert this change, i.e. to reintroduce these two options.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open "about:config"
Actual Results:  
browser.tabs.tabMinWidth and browser.tabs.tabMaxWidth are gone

Expected Results:  
browser.tabs.tabMinWidth and browser.tabs.tabMaxWidth should be there

Given the amount of people who expressed their (negative) opinions regarding the removal of these options

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=574654

and given the fact that more than one of those complainers registered on mozilla.org just to complain about this, it is obviously much missed feature.

Comment 1

[Keenan]

I'm in definite agreement, though I'd go even further and suggest that tab scrolling should be disable-able in the UI. It makes the browser pretty much unusable if you use more than the small number of massively wide tabs Firefox will allow with the default configuration.

Either way, the current situation is very inconvenient and that should be rectified.

Comment 2

[lucasbfr]

I'm not sure this is the best way to go (I understand the developpers concerns about this configuration). 

HOWEVER, this shows the tab bar is in dire need of improvement, and that the default tab min width needs to be set to something WAY smaller than 140px. 40 px maybe?

Comment 3

[LeiraHoward]

I would agree that there needs to be something added here, please consider adding an option in Tools -> Options -> Tabs to say "Disable Tab Scrolling" (Or "Infinitely shrink tabs" .... whatever works).

I think that it would be best for most users if they did not have to change any settings in "about:config" to get the desired result (no tab scrolling, tabs shrink instead).

Failing that, either re-adding "browser.tabs.minWidth" or adding another pref that specifically makes the tabs shrink infinitely ("browser.tabs.shrinkInfinitely" ?) would be an acceptable alternative.

As others have noted in the comments in bug 574654, there have been thousands of people who have downloaded the add-on to change this feature, so it is obviously something widely needed.

Comment 4

[Anthony Williams]

Yes, please add this back; when I evaluated FF4 beta, this was one of the most annoying changes. I frequently have many tabs open, with a min width just big enough for the favicon and the close icon. The FF4 tab width is HUGE by comparison.

Comment 5

[Bill Tyzuk]

Yes and set maxwidth is very useful as well as a large width puts the close tab button in the same place on the right no matter how many tabs are open.  Makes it very convenient to work a set of tabs from right to left.   

This may seem small but my arm learns where controls are.  Moving the "open in new tab" to above "open in new window" is a total PITA for me and has required major retraining of my arm!  I can sort of understand why it was done so no complaint but that is another issue ;->

Comment 6

[Fabricio Campos Zuardi]

(In reply to comment #2)
> I'm not sure this is the best way to go (I understand the developpers concerns
> about this configuration). 
> 
> HOWEVER, this shows the tab bar is in dire need of improvement, and that the
> default tab min width needs to be set to something WAY smaller than 140px. 40
> px maybe?

That request (better default tab minimum) is bug 597564

Comment 7

[lucasbfr]

(In reply to comment #6)
> That request (better default tab minimum) is bug 597564

Thanks a lot. I have commented there.

Comment 8

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

This seems to have been filed in response to bug 574654 comment 92 but summarized wrongly.

Adjusting the summary accordingly.

Comment 9

[Adam Purkrt]

Putting original title (summary) back. This is intended to be primarily a bug about bringing rowser.tabs.tabMinWidth and browser.tabs.tabMaxWidth back - see the description.

"Add hidden pref for disabling tab scrolling" should be imo filed as another bug (I'm not going to do so, since it's not essential for me).

Comment 10

[Fabricio Campos Zuardi]

also, having browser.tabs.tabMinWidth and browser.tabs.tabMaxWidth in the summary helps people find it in the search

Comment 11

[Fabricio Campos Zuardi]

wow, RESOLVED WONTFIX already! that was fast...

Comment 12

[kiwiplant]

Comment 9 summary about just adding tabMinWidth and tabMaxWidth back matches
what I'm thinking too.  I actually like the scroll.  Scroll is something very
useful that Chrome does not have.

http://aakash.doesthings.com/2011/03/30/firefox-input-user-feedback-as-a-strategy-for-product-development/

The width plugin for now seems to work ok, but what happens when it is no
longer supported. Just another plugin to worry about breaking in future
versions of Firefox. It was better when easy to change in Firefox config. If
the plugin can change it, why not in about:config?

Comment 13

[KLB]

These were two really nice options that harmed nothing. Removing them was a REALLY BAD idea! In my case, removing these two preferences broke a feature in the companion extension I maintain for my theme and I now have to program back in these settings that users of my theme and extension combo have come to appreciate.

Did someone really have the users desires/interests in mind when they removed this or did they go, "hey I don't use this preference so no one else needs it either".  Seriously, removing these two configuration options was a worse idea than removing the status bar, which was a really bad idea.

Comment 14

[Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] 🇵🇱 - (please needinfo? me - so I will see your comment/message/reply/question/etc.)]

Guys just vote for bug #597564 (Default minimum tab width should be smaller (to prevent tabscroll))

It's better reduce minimum tab width than supporting readding removed setting from about:config.

Comment 15

[Adam Purkrt]

For those who doesn't know (I didn't) location of userChrome.css:

win7:
c:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[profilename].default\chrome\userChrome.css

winXP: c:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[profilename].default\chrome\userChrome.css

(create the chrome directory & userChrome.css file if it doesn't exist)

put this into userChrome.css - tailor 250px & 100px to your liking

.tabbrowser-tab:not([pinned]) {
  max-width: 250px !important;
  min-width: 100px !important;
}

.tabbrowser-tab:not([fadein]) {
 max-width: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important;
 max-width: 1px; min-width: 1px;
}


and - voila!

I have to admit that I'm actually beginning to understand the developers'
rationale behind this change.

Still, userChrome.css is IMO anything but easily accessible, so I just filed a
request for enhancement (bug #648838) to add "about:userchrome" - which would basically open
a large <textarea> with the content of the file + save/restart firefox buttons

Comment 16

[david.m.oneill]

Where is the location of userChrome.css on a mac?

Comment 18

[Stephan Sokolow]

It's been my experience that tweaking the CSS either introduces glitches with the not-always-shown close button or messes up the Chrome-style delayed tab resizing, depending on how you do it.

Honestly, I'd think it'd be better to use a config option because then Firefox code written by someone who actually knows what they're doing can make any necessary adjustments to reconcile those two needs.