Re: Maybe Safari 4 actually is for Windows

Dan Johnson stated in post Cvedndsu27u3UjrUnZ2dnUVZ_g-WnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on
2/27/09 4:31 AM:

"ZnU" <znu@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:znu-877D5C.11421826022009@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <CMmdnUfwIazSsDjUnZ2dnUVZ_gCWnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Dan Johnson" <danieljohnson2@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Their new tabs are exactly that. They compromise usability, but they look
really good.

Putting the tabs above all the other window content is conceptually
correct, because everything else is "contained" within a specific tab.
The page content, obviously, is tab specific, and browsers have always
presented this as being within the tab. But all the controls at the top
of the browser window (location field, bookmarks bar, forward/back
button, etc.) also all either reflect the state of the current tab or
control the content area of the current tab.

I don't quite agree. It makes sense (in this way) to put the address bar
under the tabs, but not *everything*. The window itself is a container for
the tabs, not vice versa. On OS X, Safari 4 seems to make even the window's
own controls part of a tab, and that's not sensible. On Windows it's a
little better, but still- the amount of space devoted to controlling the
window proper is *tiny*.

I know I prefer tabs below... easier to see and to use. I look at the tabs
more than I look at the controls, and I want the tabs close to the info and
without visual clutter between them.

Chrome also does things this way.

Not quite. When a Chrome window is not maximized, it actually has a title
bar. A small one, with no title in it, but it's there and you can use it to
drag the window about.

It is a question of degrees. IE has a full sized title bar, with an extended
glass area for the address bar. Chrome as a small title bar. Safari has
practically none left.

Safari has a title bar that also has tabs. I, personally, do not like it,
but it does have a title bar. It is not a *dedicated* title bar, though.

(damn window controls with no dedication to their jobs! I blame the
unions.) :)

There's even a conceptual justification for merging the tab bar with the
window title bar. Tabs (inclusive of their content) are conceptually
similar to windows. They can even be torn off to become stand-along
windows. The effect of merging the tab bar with the window title bar is
that visually the new tabs aren't letting the user switch between
different views within the same window anymore; they're letting the user
switch between different windows in a sort of "window stack".

I kind of agree with this; it makes be feel that tabs are just redundant,
and what we want are better windows. :D

To be honest, though, I never had a need for tabs, when there's a perfectly
good taskbar to use for the same thing.

I am very happy tabs exist... allows me to click one button and have several
sites pop up... allows me to middle click on links and keep my focus on the
current page. And then I use my next/prev buttons on my mouse to go back
and forth between tabs. Could not do that even with a Window-style task
bar.

And, by default, Windows 7 will not even have that.


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