Hi! tl;dr we changed the default pixel value at which we overflow tabs, and I want your feedback.
We just added a change to m-c[1] that does to things: 1. it reintroduces an old preference 'browser.tabs.tabMinWidth' that contains a pixel value that controls the minimum width of a tab. 2. it sets the default value of the tab to 50, previously this value was hard-coded at 100. Work is being tracked in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1404465 We did this based on some early feedback from a few different sources that people coming from chrome ( or in some cases, existing users ) thought that the Firefox behaviour of scrolling the tabstrip was off-putting. We looked into this and I generally agree with the comments: chrome's "infinite tabs visible" approach results in a much higher usable/visible tab count in a given window than ours does. This change puts us roughly at par. To put this in numbers: * in chrome I can open ~ 24 tabs before the tabstrip's usability is degraded a lot * in current firefox, I can open ~ 12 tabs before tabstrip scrolling kicks in * with this change applied I can open 25 tabs with the pref value set to 50px ( Caveats: this was on the built-in display on my Macbook Pro with the default theme, your mileage may vary, etc ) I want feedback on this change from these lists, and will also be looking for feedback from the original sources of this complaint. In particular: 1. do you prefer the existing behaviour or the new behaviour? 2. if you prefer a value for this pref different than 50 or 100, what is it? Why? One aspect that I would like to stress about this change: most existing Firefox users will never see it, because they are unlikely to open m,ore than 10 tabs at any one time. So what we are really talking about is a change that will trade being able to see more tabs vs being able to read more text in each tab title. Moving forward there are a few different options: 1. uplifting this change into 57 ( possibly with a different default value ) If we think the patch has a generally positive effect and no downsides, we may decide to uplift into 57 Beta and let it ride the trains. 2. keeping the change in 58, possibly with a different value. 3. keeping the change in 58, preserving the current setting of 100px and providing an alternate pref ( probably a toggle or predefined values ) for "skinnier" tabs. Longer term I intend to propose a more in-depth study of tab behaviour among different user segments and assess different strategies for heavier tab users including things like horizontal tab scaling, vertical tabs, etc. I can't see that happening before Q1 next year. cheers, Jeff [1] https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/a75e0386aad8 _______________________________________________ dev-platform mailing list dev-platform@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-platform
