On Dec 23, 5:29 am, Sebo <sebastianzart...@gmx.de> wrote:
> > > Why not add the option to the Firefox menu button. There is a submenu
> > > for Web Developer. It would fit perfect there. Don't like a browser
> > > which is bloated with buttons here and there.
> > We plan to move the current Firefox > Tools > Firebug entry in the web
> > developer menu.
> That's definitely the right place for it.
> > > Still I think the best place to show information is in the status bar
> > > or add-on bar is it is called today. A notification bar that popups
> > > can be an idea. If there is something wrong with a page you can get a
> > > notification in the bottom of the screen. As example take a look at
> > > Google Chrome. When you hover or load an URL you get a notification
> > > bar at the bottom. The trick is to show only the information you need,
> > > this way you don't get a bloated window with lot's of buttons.
> > I don't understand how the example you reference helps here. What
> > signal could we use to magically discover that a developer wants the
> > firebug button?
> > jjb
> John, what angelus meant is to show an info popup after the page
> loaded saying "3 errors". One problem would arise here, because the
> popup would cover a part of the page. So it has to disappear after a
> short time, which means the information is not visible anymore after
> that little time span.
But the problem we have to solve is not "how do we show error counts
when Firebug active". The problem we have to solve is "how does a user
activate Firebug".
> > I'm conservative and for keeping the start button in the lower right
> > corner. That whole minimalistic movement is nice but it should not
> > interfere with what's just practical.
> That's also my preferation, but as we see in all these comments
> everyone likes it different.
Having lots of input like we have seen here is very helpful. However,
we cannot make decisions solely on users preferences. We also have to
consider the impact of our decisions on users who did not know to give
input, users who have not yet installed Firebug, and on the
development team which has to support users.
> So I'd suggest:
> - integrate the Firebug Menu into the Firefox Web Developer Menu
Yes! I think Honza already did that one!
> - keep the Firebug icon in the addon bar, but don't show the bar by
> default
In my opinion, the Firebug button must be visible by default.
> - show the toolbar button by default
I assume you mean "move the button to the top of the browser." I think
this could be an option but not the default for 1.7. We have a lot of
experience with the activation button in its current location. We know
it has several benefits and some draw backs. We have no experience
with the button at the top. We have no idea what bad things can
happen. For example, what happens when the user installs 3 addons? 16
addons? How about book mark options? Does it work on Linux? Etc. After
FF4 is out and we understand these issues, we can reconsider based on
more complete information.
> - either don't show the error count anymore (in case the addon bar is
Based on user feedback I believe this is not an option: the error
count is used by lots of people. If anything I think we should be
expanding it to include more information in a compact form.
> hidden) or replace the Firebug icon by the error count as it was
> mentioned before (though we'll get in trouble, if a page has a high
> number of errors, because the button width will change)
We can just have a red alert for >99 errors: (!) .
> - give the user the possibility to decide whether to open Firebug on
> top or on bottom (probably on top by default when the addon bar is
> hidden to minimize the mouse movements, even when I wouldn't like to
> have Firebug on top)
I think the default should be the bottom for 1.7. The entire FF4.0 UI
is a gigantic experiment which may or may not become the One True Way.
Let's see that experiment play out without also subjecting our users
to another experiment.
> One last idea:
> We could also move the icon to a popup (when the addon bar is hidden)
> which would be shown as soon as the user moves the cursor to the lower
> right corner of a page and would disappear when he moves away again.
> Doing so would reduce the interferance with the page contents to a
> minimum and we wouldn't break the current behavior (for all users,
> which are used to click on the Firebug icon in the lower right
> corner). A disadvantage would be, that Firebug would initially be
> hidden and therefore people could ask where it's gone.
I think this is a great idea, but just phrase it as an "auto-hide
option". So the default is that the button is visible, but it can be
set to auto-hide by the users who want it.
jjb
