[kde-quality] Re: window tabbing (especially kdevelop)

[Bill Kendrick]

On Fri, Aug 19, 2005 at 10:27:22AM +0200, Nicolas Ternisien wrote:
> Something quite simple will be to implement a system like the GMail
> one in an horizontal layout.
> 
> A screenshot is available here :
> 
> http://annivernet.free.fr/stuff/divers/kdetabbar-gmail.png
> 
> Only some tabs becomes available if the user clicks on it. The other
> one are "minimized" like GMail do.
> 
> When the mouse hovers the tabbar, each title is displayed (in a
> tooltip for example),

Guh, that's no better than what we have now, which is:

  ([]..)([]..)([]..)([]..)(<)(>)

Where you're ONLY clue is the favicon.  Of course, if you have 50 tabs open
from the _same site_, the icons are useless.  You have to hover over each
one to figure out which is which.

Another issue that comes up is that many sites do crap like this in the
title:

  Blah blah site: Page foo
  Blah blah site: Page bar
  Blah blah site: Contact us!

So the best you get, in some cases, is:

  ([]Bl..)([]Bl..)([]Bl..)(<)(>)


Along with better physical orientation of these tabs (e.g., having
multiple rows), it might be helpful to make the tabs themselves more
intelligent.

I kinda like the idea of the Mac OS X Dock style zoom-in, but AGAIN,
that depends on the user floating their mouse all over the place just
to find something.  If we have the opportunity to _show_ them the
information before they start fiddling with the mosue, that's a MUCH
better solution.

Honestly (and I've never used Gmail before), the screenshot you showed
looks more like a browser rendering glitch than a 'feature'! 8^o

   _______________________________________________
  /_______________________________________________\
  /_______________________________________________\
  /_______________________________________________\
  /_______________________________________________\
  / Joseph Garvin ...                   ..06:29.. |
  |                                               |
  | A good backup program is nice...              |
  | blah blah blah blah ... ... ... ... ... ...   |
  | blah blah blah blah ... ... ... ... ... ...   |
  | blah blah blah blah ... ... ... ... ... ...   |
  \_______________________________________________/


Those empty little curves at the top provide no information and, as you
described them, force the user to go point at them.  (They're pretty small,
too, so I can see someone getting quite frustrated with them... especially
if they have difficulty using a mouse or other pointing device.)

-bill!