The removal of the alternate stylesheet switcher

Discussion of features in Mozilla Firefox
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BenBasson
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Post by BenBasson »

this CSS2 feature should be bumped up in priority and made part of the next release of Firefox, if only for compassionate reasons.

Again, View > Style covers the CSS requirements and provides the functionality. I wish people would stop putting the case forward for implementing this feature and understand what this topic is about. This post is (now) about the switcher being accessible from the status-bar, as before.
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direx
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Post by direx »

Cusser wrote:This post is (now) about the switcher being accessible from the status-bar, as before.

And that's exactley what I miss - the style switcher in the status-bar!
joeblakesley
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Post by joeblakesley »

Cusser: As far as I can see everyone here understands perfectly well what we are discussing; there is no need to reiterate it.

View > Style meets the CSS recommendation.

It may be true that it strictly meets the requirements, but it does not do say in a user-friendly way; there are levels of conformance, and there is such a thing as following the spirit, as well as the letter, of the law. The primary problem with the current behaviour is that the user has no way of knowing that the page even has an alternate stylesheet available (without checking <code>View: Page Style</code> for every single page they visit).


You should also bear in mind that where alternate stylesheets are specified but none is specified as the default, the UA should ask the user which stylesheet to use, but Firefox does not do so.
Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
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Robert S.
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Post by Robert S. »

As I see it many people here don't understand that if there are bugs in a feature of the software it is often better to remove the feature. Hopefully these bugs will be fixed and hopefully it will be re added for those that want it on the status bar. It also seems that many people here are unaware of it being a menuitem and that the functionality provided by it in that location meets the W3C recommendation (e.g. I don't believe it is required) regarding a ua providing this functionality as well as it did by it being in the statusbar though it is less user friendly for those that want this feature. On the other hand it is probably more user friendly for those that don't want this feature since statusbar real estate is not cheap. In thinking about it, the statusbar is not necessarily a good place for it since this is often a place for information pertaining to security and at times the space is limited. Adding code to figure out whether it should be displayed or not when the space is limited or it shouldn't be displayed (e.g. print preview comes to mind) would be troublesome so perhaps somewhere else in the ui would be a better choice.
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Post by paulroberts »

why not make it a toolbar button option under customise then people could put it where they liked?
regards

Paul Roberts
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Post by joeblakesley »

paulroberts: That is a very good idea, except, currently, that wouldn't allow users to put it on the status bar (as that isn't consider a toolbar for those purposes ATM).

I think you are missing the point that this isn't about this feature (and whether it's a good one or easy to implement); it is about certain developers at MF demonstrating their control/power over the users (and indeed the W3C). Why do you think Firefox is no longer free?
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BenBasson
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Post by BenBasson »

joeblakesley wrote:it is about certain developers at MF demonstrating their control/power over the users (and indeed the W3C). Why do you think Firefox is no longer free?

What are you on? The feature was removed due to bugs with it's implementation and issues with design. As for Firefox being free, uh, last time I checked, it is still Free software in every sense of the definition.
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Robert S.
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Post by Robert S. »

Cusser wrote:
joeblakesley wrote:it is about certain developers at MF demonstrating their control/power over the users (and indeed the W3C). Why do you think Firefox is no longer free?

What are you on? The feature was removed due to bugs with it's implementation and issues with design. As for Firefox being free, uh, last time I checked, it is still Free software in every sense of the definition.

Shhhh!!! Someone is making some money off of this person and I have a nice little patch of land on Mars I want to sell to them.
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phantomx
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Post by phantomx »

Removed for being so outdated
—it's a shame, I liked the post, I think it had sence (for once)
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