Tab loading animation (spinning circles)

[autumn]

Hello.
I would like to disable the animated spinning circles to the left of the
tabs when loading a page (orange), connecting (grey), etc. I'd be fine
with still circles, I just want to stop the animations.
I don't want to get rid of tab icons alltogether as they show you what
site you're on.

I tried some userChrome.css code suggestions found on the forums but
they didn't seem to work. Some of them:

tab[busy] > .tab-middle > .tab-icon {
list-style-image: url("chrome://global/skin/icons/folder-item.png")
!important;
-moz-image-region: rect(0px, 16px, 16px, 0px) !important;
}



..tabbrowser-tabs .tab-icon { display: none; }



tab[busy] > .tab-icon {
display: none !important;
}

tab > .tab-icon {
display: none !important;
}

Both with and without putting @namespace
url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); at
the beginning of the file

I'm probably missing something. Help?
Thank you

[Mayayana]

"autumn" <aut...@leaves.dca1.giganews.com> wrote

| I would like to disable the animated spinning circles to the left of the
| tabs when loading a page (orange), connecting (grey), etc. I'd be fine
| with still circles, I just want to stop the animations.

I've never used tabs, but it sounds like you're talking about
the "throbber" activity indicator icon. You should be able
to remove it via View -> Customize, then drag it into the
customize window. That would remove it altogether, but
of course there's no point to having it if doesn't animate
during page load.

[autumn]

It's not the main throbber, it's not draggable. See here:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=322514

[autumn]

http://s11.postimg.org/9i1yju3j7/image.gif if you're still not sure what
I'm talking about

[Mayayana]

"autumn" <aut...@leaves.dca1.giganews.com> wrote

| > It's not the main throbber, it's not draggable. See here:
| > http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=322514
| http://s11.postimg.org/9i1yju3j7/image.gif if you're still not sure what
| I'm talking about

I understand what you're saying but I didn't
answer further because I've never used tabs
and therefore had nothing to offer. I was
just assuming that the activity indicator was
the same for tabs or main window. Apparently
it's not.

Did you look online for this? A quick search
turns up the following, to put in userChrome.css:

..tab-throbber {display: none !important}

I'm using FF 36. That seems to work for me to
get rid of the icon. I doubt you'll be able to keep it
but stop it from animating. That wouldn't make
much sense. If you meant that you're
seeing favicons after the activity stops, you'll
have to test that. I block favicons so I can't see
them anyway.

If you don't know about userChrome.css:

Got to the profile folder. Create a chrome folder if
it doesn't exist. Create a file in that named
userChrome.css, if it doesn't exist. Add the line
above.
(Some people say you also need a line that
starts with "@namespace", at the top. I've never
added such a line and have no idea why anyone
thinks it's necessary.)

[autumn]

On 04/08/2017 06:00 PM, Mayayana wrote:
> I understand what you're saying but I didn't
> answer further because I've never used tabs
> and therefore had nothing to offer. I was
> just assuming that the activity indicator was
> the same for tabs or main window. Apparently
> it's not.
>

That's fine. By the way, why you don't use tabs? How do you open several
sites at the same time?

> I doubt you'll be able to keep it
> but stop it from animating. That wouldn't make
> much sense. If you meant that you're
> seeing favicons after the activity stops, you'll
> have to test that. I block favicons so I can't see
> them anyway.
>

I'd prefer they were still images becuase it would still allow me to
tell wether it was connecting (grey) or loading (orange), but if hiding
them altogether is the only way then fine let's do that

> Did you look online for this? A quick search
> turns up the following, to put in userChrome.css:
>
> ..tab-throbber {display: none !important}
>

Yes. Nothing I put on that file seems to work. I just tried again with
your suggestion but nothing changes. I have to be missing something

[Mayayana]

"autumn" <aut...@leaves.dca1.giganews.com> wrote

| That's fine. By the way, why you don't use tabs? How do you open several
| sites at the same time?
|

I just use a separate window, like "the old days".
I find tabs confusing. It's easier to just have the
window icons showing on the taskbar. If there get to
be too many I know it's time to clean up and close
some windows.

| > ..tab-throbber {display: none !important}
| >
| Yes. Nothing I put on that file seems to work. I just tried again with
| your suggestion but nothing changes. I have to be missing something
|

Are you sure you have the location right?
You seem to be using Linux.

..mozilla/firefox/<profile folder>/chrome/userChrome.css

[autumn]

On 04/11/2017 01:40 PM, Mayayana wrote:

> Are you sure you have the location right?
> You seem to be using Linux.
>
> ..mozilla/firefox/<profile folder>/chrome/userChrome.css
>
>

I open the profile folder using Help > Troubleshooting information >
Open Directory, then I find the chrome folder and then I find the
userChrome.css file and edit it.
I just tried adding other lines to this file for changing other things
and they work, but all other lines I tried to remove the spinning
circles none of that worked. So I'm editing the right file, but it
doesn't want to listen to the lines regarding the tab icons. I've tried
with recent and older firefox versions (currently trying on v29) but it
still doesn't work. What am I missing then?

[Mayayana]

"autumn" <aut...@leaves.dca1.giganews.com> wrote

| What am I missing then?

I don't know. You're not using 2 dots, are you? I
noticed two of my posts have 2 dots starting. I'm
not sure if I did that or if it's some fluke of the
posting.

..tab-throbber {display: none !important;}

There should be only one dot before "tab",
and no space between the dot and "tab".
CSS is finicky. If you make just one syntax
mistake the browser will just ignore the rest
of the CSS.

[Roger Fink]

Go into about:config.
Search and find "browser.tabs.animate".
Under the "Value" column click existing "true" to change it to "false".

[Mayayana]

"Mayayana" <maya...@invalid.nospam> wrote

| ..tab-throbber {display: none !important;}
|

Very strange. It's something in the news server
adding a dot to any line I start with a dot! Just
use that line without the 2 dots. Only one.

In CSS, 1 dot denotes a class, a hash sign denotes
an ID and anything else is an element:

<P ID="first-paragraph" CLASS="P1">

P {font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;}
#P1 {color: #800000;}
..first-paragraph {font-size: 14px;}

(The last line without 2 dots.)

So when you're setting things in userChrome.css
you need to notice whether they have a dot or
hash sign in front. With Firefox it's somewhat
random, since it's dealing with made-up names
for UI items rather than HTML. But the CSS format
still works *mostly* the same way.

[autumn]

Indeed, I checked the file and among the many lines I tried intended to
remove the spinning circle there were some with double dots. I totally
overlooked that. I just corrected it making sure all of the lines start
with only one dot. Don't know which one takes precedence or triggers the
change but I now I don't see those Choppy spinning circles anymore.
Thanks so much everyone!

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message
<mailman.1726.149226050...@lists.mozilla.org>,

Mayayana <maya...@invalid.nospam> writes:
>"Mayayana" <maya...@invalid.nospam> wrote
>
>| ..tab-throbber {display: none !important;}
>|
>
> Very strange. It's something in the news server
>adding a dot to any line I start with a dot! Just
>use that line without the 2 dots. Only one.

[]
At a guess, it's thinking (presumably because it's true, though I don't
think I've ever seen it) that some news software uses "." in the same
way many use ">" (and some use "|"), i. e. to indicate who said what -
so when it's quoting such a line, it thinks it's got to add another . .
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"Scheisse," said Pooh, trying out his German.

[Richard Alan]

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

> Mayayana <maya...@invalid.nospam> writes:
>>"Mayayana" <maya...@invalid.nospam> wrote
>>
>>| ..tab-throbber {display: none !important;}
>>|
>>
>> Very strange. It's something in the news server
>>adding a dot to any line I start with a dot! Just use that line without
>>the 2 dots. Only one.
>
> At a guess, it's thinking (presumably because it's true, though I don't
> think I've ever seen it) that some news software uses "." in the same
> way many use ">" (and some use "|"), i. e. to indicate who said what -
> so when it's quoting such a line, it thinks it's got to add another . .

Perhaps if Mayayana were to switch to the standard accepted quote line
marker of the ">" the "problem" would disappear. What do you think?

..It's not the news server either. It's his Outlook Express.

[Mayayana]

"Richard Alan" <ra...@nospam.org> wrote

> Perhaps if Mayayana were to switch to the standard accepted quote line
> marker of the ">" the "problem" would disappear. What do you think?
>

> It's not the news server either. It's his Outlook Express.

OK. Here's a test:

.tab-throbber {display: none !important;}

OE works just fine, despite enduring years of smug
criticism from obsessively conformist geeks. :)

I use | *because* everyone uses >. Using a variety
of marks helps to show who said what. But I know
that won't make sense to you. Rules are everything
for you.

[Mayayana]

"Mayayana" <maya...@invalid.nospam> wrote

| > Perhaps if Mayayana were to switch to the standard accepted quote line
| > marker of the ">" the "problem" would disappear. What do you think?
| >
| > It's not the news server either. It's his Outlook Express.
|
| OK. Here's a test:
|
| .tab-throbber {display: none !important;}
|

That seemed to work. Mysterious. Perhaps
you could advance a theory as to exactly why
it works? I can't imagine any reason that a pipe
character should cause an extra period to be
added.

[Jim Porter]

On 4/7/17 9:19 AM, autumn wrote:
> I would like to disable the animated spinning circles to the left of the
> tabs when loading a page (orange), connecting (grey), etc. I'd be fine
> with still circles, I just want to stop the animations.
> I don't want to get rid of tab icons alltogether as they show you what
> site you're on.

If you don't mind me asking, why do you want to disable the spinning
circles? I'm working on adding better support for disabling animations
in Firefox (primarily for performance reasons), and it would be helpful
to know your reasoning here. Are there performance issues with the
animation? Does the animation make you nauseous or anything like that?
(I know some people have expressed concerns like this about Firefox's
animations.) Is it just annoying?

I can't guarantee we'll do anything to make it easier to disable the tab
loading animation, but if I have a better idea of *why* people want to
disable it, I can at least make a case for how we should support this
option in Firefox.

- Jim

[Roger Fink]

I had the same question, since graphically displaying that a page is
loading is for me a useful feature. Moreover if you absolutely have to,
you can stop the animation by hitting the X button on the GUI.

But I also have some sympathy for what OP is trying to do. IMO in
general there is too much animation on web pages and much of it is
visually distracting and serves no useful purpose (no matter what its
creators may think). Basically it's disharmonious, distracting
competition with the desired video content. Web designers and
advertisers resort to it because THEY CAN. IMO browser UI designers
should avoid it, also because they can.

If you assume that showing the page loading status is mission-critical,
which I feel it is, there are ways to do it where animation is very
minimal, or non-existent.

As an example, what if you had a small radio button (you don't click the
button, I'm just describing how it looks) that appeared on a tab when it
was loading, or was loaded and in focus. When the page is loading the
button infill could appear orange - not flashing orange, but solid
orange. When the page was loaded and in focus it could be green. If
using color as an indicator creates accessibility issues (or is just too
prominent), perhaps it could be done in grayscale.

I noticed on my android tablet that Firefox displays the page loading
status but Chrome does not (at least I couldn't find it), so maybe the
crowd-sourced answer as to whether it's necessary is a coin flip. But if
that is so, then it's a tertiary item, and the solution should make as
small a splash as possible.

All IMHO

RF
www.harrietyoung.com