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HIGH_TABS

                                                  August 03, 2013

A talk by Alex Faaborg, the
Principal Designer at Mozilla             YOU_AND_I_DIFFER
(which I found via jwz).

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMDBwa4huUY

An interesting detail:
he mentions user reaction to      I'd entirely forgotten about
his tabs-on-top feature: he       "tabs-on-top".  When they rolled
claims that users hate it at      it out, I thought it was the
first, but then they love it.     dumbest thing I'd ever seen, I
                                  found the customization option to
  Here, I learned what            switch it back, and there I've
  he was thinking: He             left it ever since.
  reasoned that the
  controls that effect                   What seemed dumb about it?  It
  *just-the-tab* should                  seemed like a complete violation
  be grouped                             of the underlying metaphor.
  *on-the-tab*.                          The tabs are the way I select
                                         different content that comes
  That's an interesting                  from other people: the browser
  logical principle... but               controls belong outside of this
  I fail to see what's                   barrier, in my domain.
  confusing about just
  having certain controls                I would also add: this change was
  that always act on the                 unfamiliar, unasked for, and any
  active tab-- you know,                 way you look at it, it doesn't add
  the stuff that you *see*               any functionality.
  right now-- no matter
  where these controls are                   Faaborg's contention would be
  placed.                                    that I just didn't give it a
                                             chance.  And if I'd only used
                                             it longer I would "love" it.
Two things of interest:
                                                I would guess I would no
Faarborg has a very logical                     doubt *get used to it*, but
point that's almost entirely                    it's extremely unlikely I
besides the point.                              would "love it".

He's completely insolated
from any criticism of his
ideas:                                          And actually, I personally
                                                would prefer an emacs-style
o  He'll never hear from                        interface with *everything*
   someone like me: I just                      controllable by keyboard
   shut the feature off.                        commands that can be user
                                                redefined if desired. The
o  Anyone he can find who's                     mouse menus should just be
   gotten used to his new                       hints to make it eaisier to
   layout, he elevates to                       learn the keyboard commands.
   being "in love" with it.
                                                  (One of the
                                                  peculiarity about
                                                  these discussions
                                                  is that jwz is on
                                                  the opposite side
                                                  from me, but it's
                                                  not like he
                                                  doesn't know his
                                                  way around emacs.)



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