patrickjdempsey wrote:For over 3 decades, in every windowed OS ever created, the bar at the bottom of an application that shows status text has been called the "status bar".
Half true. The bar that shows the status text has been called the status bar yes, and it has been *typically* placed at the bottom (this is not a hard rule).
Neither the status bar added by Firefox, or the status bar added by S4E, are the concept status bar you refer to. Firefox's is just a shim for compatibility with older coded add-ons, so they can still be used in newer versions; it has no actual "status" parts what-so-ever, but it *is* called status bar for tradition because it did have those in the past, even the DOM element itself is called "statusbar".
S4E's is a normal toolbar, and includes customizable widgets that emulate a status bar (which is the point of the add-on I believe). To your point, if I were to move those widgets to the nav-bar, then that would become the actual *status* bar.
patrickjdempsey wrote:Extensions should NOT have even been offering the "option" to use the statusbar shim after Firefox 4, and the confusion over what that option even means already exists and has existed since Firefox 4. It was a bad decision to offer that option then, and now it's a bad decision that is going to have repercussions unless authors update their extensions and remove all of that legacy code.
I agree! But the fact remains that many add-ons still use that shim. And for the more "casual" user, here's what they'll experience:
1) Use any add-on that uses the shim, together with S4E
2) Update to Firefox 29 with Australis when it's released
2.1) "Where're my buttons??" (the ones in *the* status bar)
3) "Wait, there's an option there saying Status Bar. Uff, that was scary for a moment."
4) Enable S4E's toolbar
5) "Well... Huh? Where's my stuff?"
To which they will proceed to complain to either Mozilla (not their fault as you say, and who probably won't have a clue where that "Status Bar" entry came from most likely), S4E's developer (who'll have to explain the difference between "Status Bar" and "Status Bar") and to the add-on in question's developer (of course it's their responsibility here, but some less informed users might think it's really S4E's toolbar "not working properly", so this will likely be their last option unless someone directs them there; and lets remember many of these older add-ons aren't even being actively developed anymore, hence they're still using the status bar).
RobertJ wrote:Kind of a nit.
I disagree completely.
Frank Lion wrote:Yeah, because this is all about the users, right?
I read this as if it was written sarcastically, I apologize if that's not the case and you were being sincere. But yeah, it's about the users. Personally I don't even use S4E, and it doesn't affect my add-on's working at all. So, in all honesty, I couldn't care less about it. I mean no disrespect, only that whatever decision is taken doesn't affect me in the slightest, I was making a sincere constructive suggestion.
