733782 - Get unified styling into platform.

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Themes, defect)

Description

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

As the UX Lead for the second-largest consumer of the platform code, I've been looking at the new Australis styles for Firefox (bug 727650 and bug 732583), and hoping that we in Thunderbird-land could get similar styling without having to re-implement it all.

If we could get some of the style code landed in core, it would make it far easier for the other Mozilla products to look and feel consistent, if they chose to.

Comment 1

[Stephen Horlander [:shorlander]]

Not sure what would be required to share more styles with toolkit. 

CCing Dão and Dolske.

Comment 2

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

If for example the .toolbarbutton-1 styles could be in toolkit then TB hasn't to copy them from /browser and put them in /messenger. Also the tabs and textboxes defined in /browser comes in mind.

Comment 3

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Richard Marti [:paenglab] from comment #2)
> If for example the .toolbarbutton-1 styles could be in toolkit then TB
> hasn't to copy them from /browser and put them in /messenger. Also the tabs
> and textboxes defined in /browser comes in mind.

I don't believe this would simplify anything. The app-specific parts would remain in browser/ and /messanger, building on toolkit/ and creating some hairy dependencies. In the future browser/ and /messanger would need to be updated simultaneously or one of them would break.

Things like the tab strip would be even trickier, since Firefox and Thunderbird have custom XBL bindings.

We don't want Firefox and Thunderbird to hold each other hostage. Instead you can just take the code from browser/, customize it and put in /messanger.

Comment 4

[Paul [pwd]]

I think this is the right way forward and have banged on about this somewhat. The platform isn't being leveraged enough and as a result products like Thunderbird that should be moving at a similar pace to Firefox aren't. There should certainly be a globalised feel to Mozilla products and copying/recreating isn't the best answer, it's merely the easiest. If there needs to be some change in infrastructure, then this bug should be the one that triggers that effort as in the long run Mozilla suffers along with any product outside of the main one.

Comment 5

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Paul [sabret00the] from comment #4)
> There should certainly be a globalised feel to Mozilla products and
> copying/recreating isn't the best answer, it's merely the easiest.

Well, the point of this bug was to make things easier.

Comment 6

[Paul [pwd]]

Touché.

Comment 7

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

Copying/recreating isn't actually the easiest answer.  It might be the most convenient in the short term, but the cost of figuring out what changed, and porting fixes (or not!) from one side to the other very quickly overwhelms any savings you might have gotten from not sharing the code in the first place.

No-one is suggesting that Thunderbird should hold Firefox hostage, and Firefox already holds Thunderbird hostage in any number of ways, so this wouldn't actually be a change from the current system, other than allowing Thunderbird to progress more rapidly, and be more consistent with Firefox, with less work.

Comment 8

[Paul [pwd]]

In my opinion, there's a lot more (shared code/styling) in the products (Firefox/Thunderbird/Fennec) than should be, not just styling but some of the general code. This became apparent to me with issues like the Firefox button. The platform has been neglected and now a move back in the right direction seems daunting but it is one that should be supported.

Dao is right that this is a change that shouldn't be supported on the grounds of being the easiest as it's definitely a huge change that is likely to require a lot of discussion and preparation if it's to be undergone properly. I'm in full agreement with bwinton that this is best for the platform. Not only would this ease the management and progression of Thunderbird but it would also make the Mozilla platform a lot more attractive to developers. Which can't be a bad thing.