Big Theme change again in Firefox 4?

[patrickjdempsey]

These are the designs:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/4.0_Wi ... me_Mockups

The current builds for 3.7 are actually getting pretty close to these with the exception of the Firefox button on the caption bar. This thread lists the step by step progress they are making with development:

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1418995

[WattsvilleBlues]

I understand the work is ongoing there, but I'm wondering will there be any theme update for 3.7? Will there even be a 3.7 release?

[patrickjdempsey]

Yes, 3.7 should be released sometime this summer and is based on Gecko 1.9.3. A beta version has not yet arrived, but Mozilla has produced 5 Alpha's so far and the last one is very promising. Version 3.7 is in an unusual position as far as versions go because it is such a big departure from the other 3.X designs.... and it's really pretty close to the 4.0 designs in many ways. The big changes slated for 4.0 will be a major reworking of all of the menus and internal dialogs. The menu-bar will be eliminated and replaced with a single button, and the pop-up dialogs will be reorganized and stuffed into tabs, both practices which have up-sides and down-sides and are sure to prompt many discussions.

[WattsvilleBlues]

Cheers, I'd heard that 3.7 was maybe just going to be an under-the-hood update, and might not have included any theme update.

[patrickjdempsey]

I think the "under-the-hood" parts are being delivered with 3.6.4 and Out-Of-Process-Plugins. Also, it looks like some of the changes in the dialogs are now being put into development... here's a review of the latest sample:

http://www.addictivetips.com/internet-t ... t-version/

[CatThief]

here's a review of the latest sample:

http://www.addictivetips.com/internet-t ... t-version/

Interesting choice of words...
"The new version of the Add-on Manager opens in a new tab instead of the annoying new window and contains a sidebar to choose what kind of add-on you want to work with"

Gosh, last time I checked the current Add-ons Manager has the same functionality. It's small, clean, compact, and instead of a sidebar it contains a topbar to choose what kind of add-on you want to work with. (Actually it should be said 'with which you want to work', but I digress.)

So far all I'm seeing with the new version is a huge amount of screen space with a bunch of visual bells and whistles. The screenshots give the illusion of this thing being small and compact as well but tell me now, who uses a browser window of that size. Even a netbook is larger.

[patrickjdempsey]

It honesty looks like it was designed for use by the visually impared... this oversized fonts abuse has really got to stop! That "annoying new window" quote is strange to me as well... Firefox has used a popup window for managing themes and extensions for a long time and as you said, content and function-wise the tab-menu is identical to the pop-up, except that it wastes more space. Boy I can't wait to start tearing that apart in my themes, lol.

[Frank Lion]

Interesting choice of words...
"The new version of the Add-on Manager opens in a new tab instead of the annoying new window and contains a sidebar to choose what kind of add-on you want to work with"

Well, I don't reckon that anyone could have found it that annoying, considering that someone just had to enter the following into the addressbar at any time in the last 7 years -

chrome://mozapps/content/extensions/extensions.xul

Was anyone rushing to do that? No, but now that the Addons Manager is changing, suddenly the original was 'annoying'.

Same as this 'Tabs on Top' stuff, you could do the coding for that in Firefox for years, did anyone show the slightest interest in this, now, 'must have' feature, until Chrome adopted it?

[patrickjdempsey]

I guess some people just don't like pop-ups... and while I agree pop-ups are annoying in some cases, in other cases I think they make more sense than dialogs glued into the same panel you are working in. So is this Step 1 in removing all of the pop-up dialogs? They are also attempting to shoe-horn the tab-previews into the Firefox window, with some cludgy rules about allowing it to expand beyond the window if the window is smaller than X percentage of the screen.

Currently, they have a problem with dealing with horizontal overflow... which amazingly is NOT a problem with the smaller pop-up... like how "Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library + version number", fits in the allotted space of the pop-up with room to spare, but completely breaks the UI of the new manager. Oooops.

Oh, and Frank... cool trick!

[CatThief]

Ok, now I'm getting ticked off. I just dug this out of mozilla.dev.apps.firefox

Code: Select all

On 5/3/2010 6:12 PM, Peter Lairo wrote:
> FWIW: I find the new UI cumbersome and less efficient for add-ons
> because I can see much fewer add-ons at a time. And the restart, update,
> etc buttons/links are harder to find.

I'm not sure that these concerns are valid; we're moving to a system where updates happen automatically and do not require restarts. If your add-ons were always up to date, would you need these buttons?

Not valid concerns? Looks like we're not only losing appearance, but losing control. Why is it assumed that everyone wants to automatically update their add-ons. I for one (and there are many more) don't always want the latest version. BTW, that response was from the man himself, Mr. Mike Beltzner.

[Bozz]

^^Agreed. I have a couple of extensions that I don't like the latest versions and will not use any Firefox build that doesn't have an option to update or not....as if they or anyone actually cares what I do or use.

[ShareBird]

Me too... I never let any software make updates automatically and such a software that don't give me the choice to do updates only if and when I want them would immediately be removed from my machine.

[WildcatRay]

I do think it will be an option to have or not have automatic updates of add-ons. The biggest reason why is because of the user's ability to install add-ons globally vs. in indivdual profiles. So long as they do not provide a way to have a globally-installed add-on also update globally, they will have to offer the option to disable automatic updates.

I think there were some issues concerning add-on updating that may have been in part why they backed out the new Add-on Mgr. UI. I seem to recall others complaining that they could not get the unchecking of automatic updates in each add-on listing to stick. Also, I think no one could find a way to globally disable automatic add-on updating. The Ts regression may have been a convenient way to back it out until they could go back through and address the other issues IDed while it was in Trunk.

[patrickjdempsey]

I noticed a few problems with it... I never got it to allow me to change themes, and the whole "more information" thing doesn't really provide ENOUGH information to be worthy of a separate page you have to navigate back out of. Maybe they are going to expand on allowing more info in the install.rdf? It would be much more convenient to ship some basic advice and FAQ stuff right in the add-on than depend on people's ability to find it on AMO or even worse if they got it from an unofficial download site like Softepedia.

[patrickjdempsey]

Well for one, someone discovered how to make fonts 4 sizes bigger than what the user has the OS set to use thereby destroying the whole point of an icon-driven interface.