1041714 - Tab overflow triggers too early on non maximized windows

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[alex_mayorga]

Attachment: tab-bar-wrong-overflow.PNG

Steps:
0. Press <Ctrl>+<T> repeatedly until the tabs overflow (< and > appear on the tab bar.
1. Restore the window so it is not maximized (press <Win>+<Right arrow> once or twice.

Results:
There are empty pixels left on the right of the tab bar.

Expected results:
The overflown tabs use the entire tab bar.

Comment 1

[alex_mayorga]

Attachment: tab-bar-oddity.PNG

Comment 2

[:Gijs (he/him)]

This is really a duplicate but I've been trying to find it for 10 minutes and can't.

The tabs and/or toolbar buttons don't fit under the window controls, hence them not extending that far. We need click space for moving a restored window above the tabs, hence there being space above the tabs.

There isn't really anything to be done here.

Comment 3

[alex_mayorga]

Perhaps the < > should be hidden completely in this case and just the drop down tab selector be visible.

Are you in fact saying you see nothing wrong on tab-bar-wrong-overflow.PNG?

- There are UI affordances there that even when active don't result in useful interactions for users.

- On a restored window, there are few pixels at the top and left that could be used to move the window around.

- There's still wasted space under _[]X IMHO.

Comment 4

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to alex_mayorga from comment #3)
> Perhaps the < > should be hidden completely in this case and just the drop
> down tab selector be visible.
> 
> Are you in fact saying you see nothing wrong on tab-bar-wrong-overflow.PNG?
> 
> - There are UI affordances there that even when active don't result in
> useful interactions for users.

There's a separate bug on file about having a huge number of pinned tabs and then resizing the window so the normal tabs don't scroll anymore. That wasn't what the bug summary was about, though...

> - On a restored window, there are few pixels at the top and left that could
> be used to move the window around.
>
> - There's still wasted space under _[]X IMHO.

This is what I was addressing. There isn't really much we could do about this because the hover state of the buttons there ( |>| and |\/|, if you'll excuse my poor ascii art) as well as the shaded tabstrip separator thing are all too tall to fit under the window controls.

If you enable the menubar, that creates enough vertical space for things to fit, and so they will.

Other than that, just saying "there is wasted space" but not addressing how to fix the issue you perceive isn't going to help move this bug forward.

If you feel strongly about this, the best thing to do would be to contact the UX team and/or write to firefox-dev with a concrete proposal of what should be done (rather than just complain about wasted space in the current situation). There's no point having a bug if it's not clear how it could be fixed, and/or what the issue is, if any.

Keep in mind that there used to be less space above the tabs, and there is now more because of the *explicit request* from many people that there was too little space to drag the window from. It seems unlikely we'll reverse course there - apparently some people are going to be unhappy no matter what we do. Perfect for an add-on to fix instead. :-)

Comment 5

[alex_mayorga]

My proposed solution was right there in comment 0:

"Expected results:
The overflown tabs use the entire tab bar."

Is there anyone we could needinfo in order "to contact the UX team"?

Comment 6

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to alex_mayorga from comment #5)
> My proposed solution was right there in comment 0:
> 
> "Expected results:
> The overflown tabs use the entire tab bar."

I've explained that that isn't possible - bits of the buttons would get overlaid by the window controls (_[]X to use your ascii art).


> Is there anyone we could needinfo in order "to contact the UX team"?

You could needinfo :phlsa or :shorlander .

Comment 7

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to :Gijs Kruitbosch (Gone July 26 - August 3) from comment #6)
> (In reply to alex_mayorga from comment #5)
> > My proposed solution was right there in comment 0:
> > 
> > "Expected results:
> > The overflown tabs use the entire tab bar."
> 
> I've explained that that isn't possible - bits of the buttons would get
> overlaid by the window controls (_[]X to use your ascii art).

(ditto for the tabs themselves, btw)

Comment 8

[alex_mayorga]

Filed bug 1042928 as a follow up.