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User:Broccauley/Fixing TabCandy: Difference between revisions
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→So what exactly is wrong with "TabCandy"?
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#Once you create a new partitioning with "TabCandy", the non-selected "tab sets" are '''hidden''' and go into what I shall dub "The Land of Limbo". Are they still running in RAM and consuming resources? Or are they in a weird suspended state? I shouldn't even have to ask or care about this question - a good UI should be obvious - this Limbo state of non-selected "tab sets" just shouldn't exist in the first place, and is confusing by adding an extra paradigm of "hidden pages" and hence an unnecessary extra layer of complexity; it needlessly '''blurs the previously clear and distinct line between a set of pages that you have open and a set of pages that you have closed but stored in your "recent bookmarks"'''.<br> <br> I suspect that this might be a symptom of Mac-centric design. After all, Mac users are used to the concept of having a user-launched program running and using resources even though they can't see a window. As a biased primarily Windows and Linux KDE user I find this concept completely alien (as likely will the overwhelming majority of FF users who don't use Macs). Actually, Mac users should also find the "TabCandy" behaviour very odd because here you actually ''do'' have pages open, yet TabCandy decides to even hide ''open'' pages from you. I like to be in control of what I have open and to be able to see it - I don't like things being hidden from me - SHOW ME MY WINDOWS! "TabCandy" takes away such control and hides my windows from me.<br><br> | #Once you create a new partitioning with "TabCandy", the non-selected "tab sets" are '''hidden''' and go into what I shall dub "The Land of Limbo". Are they still running in RAM and consuming resources? Or are they in a weird suspended state? I shouldn't even have to ask or care about this question - a good UI should be obvious - this Limbo state of non-selected "tab sets" just shouldn't exist in the first place, and is confusing by adding an extra paradigm of "hidden pages" and hence an unnecessary extra layer of complexity; it needlessly '''blurs the previously clear and distinct line between a set of pages that you have open and a set of pages that you have closed but stored in your "recent bookmarks"'''.<br> <br> I suspect that this might be a symptom of Mac-centric design. After all, Mac users are used to the concept of having a user-launched program running and using resources even though they can't see a window. As a biased primarily Windows and Linux KDE user I find this concept completely alien (as likely will the overwhelming majority of FF users who don't use Macs). Actually, Mac users should also find the "TabCandy" behaviour very odd because here you actually ''do'' have pages open, yet TabCandy decides to even hide ''open'' pages from you. I like to be in control of what I have open and to be able to see it - I don't like things being hidden from me - SHOW ME MY WINDOWS! "TabCandy" takes away such control and hides my windows from me.<br><br> | ||
#Because "TabCandy" hides my pages from me, I am actually ''forced'' to go through "TabCandy" to see all my pages; I can't use the more obvious, powerful, ''exposed'', tried-and-tested and consistent methods that I have available to me both from my OS and from other more obvious areas of the Firefox UI that have existed since FF2. I have to click and open "TabCandy" to edit the "page sets" and can't really see or edit these well by just using the tab-strip itself. Once I start using "TabCandy" I am '''locked into "TabCandy"'s "walled garden"''' - I shouldn't be forced like this to use a separate tool to perform basic page/tab/window management.<br><br> | #Because "TabCandy" hides my pages from me, I am actually ''forced'' to go through "TabCandy" to see all my pages; I can't use the more obvious, powerful, ''exposed'', tried-and-tested and consistent methods that I have available to me both from my OS and from other more obvious areas of the Firefox UI that have existed since FF2. I have to click and open "TabCandy" to edit the "page sets" and can't really see or edit these well by just using the tab-strip itself. Once I start using "TabCandy" I am '''locked into "TabCandy"'s "walled garden"''' - I shouldn't be forced like this to use a separate tool to perform basic page/tab/window management.<br><br> | ||
#"TabCandy" only works on a '''per-window basis''', rather than showing me the bigger picture of ''all'' the web-browsing that I am actually doing. I can't count the number of times that I've had 3 or so windows open and then lose one of these "ghost" tabs into TabCandy's "Land of Limbo" and then have to dig through all the windows to try and find it again (making me actually LESS productive with "TabCandy" than without). This just '''discourages the existing good practice of partitioning your open tabbed pages into windows'''.<br> "TabCandy" is therefore taking the tried, tested, more flexible, powerful, and much more simple method of grouping tabbed pages by window, and completely throwing it "out the window" (if you excuse the recursive pun! :)). "Tab sets" != open windows'''.<br><br> | #"TabCandy" only works on a '''per-window basis''', rather than showing me the bigger picture of ''all'' the web-browsing that I am actually doing. I can't count the number of times that I've had 3 or so windows open and then lose one of these "ghost" tabs into TabCandy's "Land of Limbo" and then have to dig through all the windows to try and find it again (making me actually LESS productive with "TabCandy" than without). This just '''discourages the existing good practice of partitioning your open tabbed pages into windows'''.<br> "TabCandy" is therefore taking the tried, tested, more flexible, powerful, and much more simple method of grouping tabbed pages by window, and completely throwing it "out the window" (if you excuse the recursive pun! :)). '''"Tab sets" != open windows'''.<br><br> | ||
#"TabCandy" doesn't really acknowledge or exploit the UI advantages that are now available in '''Windows 7'''. It also doesn't acknowledge that having '''5 or 6 different Firefox windows on Windows 7 is really not a problem for the user''' to deal with - there is therefore no reason to hide them from you.<br><br> | #"TabCandy" doesn't really acknowledge or exploit the UI advantages that are now available in '''Windows 7'''. It also doesn't acknowledge that having '''5 or 6 different Firefox windows on Windows 7 is really not a problem for the user''' to deal with - there is therefore no reason to hide them from you.<br><br> | ||
#"TabCandy" (and modern web-browsers in general) doesn't really acknowledge the fact that users shouldn't actually care about small inflexible UI elements for showing fixed-sized pages called "tabs". The user should care only about the web '''CONTENT '''or '''"pages"''' that they are browsing. <s>The new name of "Tab Sets" (whilst better than "Tab Candy") misguidedly still '''focuses its name on a small inflexible UI control called a "tab"'''.</s> ''(Edit: This has now been fixed with the excellent new name of "Panorama", however, the Firefox-UI and TabCandy/Panorama instruction video still over-use the word "tab".)<br><br> | #"TabCandy" (and modern web-browsers in general) doesn't really acknowledge the fact that users shouldn't actually care about small inflexible UI elements for showing fixed-sized pages called "tabs". The user should care only about the web '''CONTENT '''or '''"pages"''' that they are browsing. <s>The new name of "Tab Sets" (whilst better than "Tab Candy") misguidedly still '''focuses its name on a small inflexible UI control called a "tab"'''.</s> ''(Edit: This has now been fixed with the excellent new name of "Panorama", however, the Firefox-UI and TabCandy/Panorama instruction video still over-use the word "tab".)<br><br> | ||