652735 - Tab sizing should be revert to normal when moving cursor out of tab-bar

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Frank Yan (:fryn)]

In bug 465086, we implemented it so that tab sizing reverts when moving the cursor outside of the greater toolbar region. We decided that this wasn't the best behavior, so we are changing it so that the sizing reverts when moving the cursor out of the tab bar.

Comment 1

[Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team]

I've tried living with the tabs not resizing when you leave the tab strip but stay within the toolbar, and it still just seems broken and unresponsive to me. 

I don't think the reasoning behind the "users aren't always precise" argument holds up — if that's what we're trying to do, the added threshold for resizing should only be a few pixels outside of the tab bar area, not the entire toolbar. :)

Comment 2

[Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team]

In other words, I agree with Frank that the tab bar should resize once you leave it, and the toolbar shouldn't count as part of this area.

Comment 3

[ithinc]

I suggest a half-toolbar-height threshold. If I remember right, tab-tearing-off has such a threshold.

Comment 4

[Alex Haan]

I often close a tab using the middle mouse button. Sometimes I close the wrong tab, so I use the old way of middle-mouse-clicking to the right of the open tabs by using TabMixPlus (to be honest it's a shame that feature was removed from Firefox itself). 

But you are (now) resizing the tabs the moment the mouse leaves the tab bar. I am still moving my mouse to the right to correct my mistake. And by the time I click with the middle mouse button on what was a clear toolbar just under a second ago, an open tab is under the cursor. So when I click that happens on a tab and I close that too, instead of opening the just closed one.

Now a great feature is gone. But you also prevent people from using their own ways of re-introducing it by making the tabs resize early. Please take this under consideration.