Sunday, September 3, 2006

I beg to differ Sometimes one just has to disagree with the experts. In this case, Dan's wrong: Firefox Tabs. . .The first version of Firefox 2 Beta (2.0B1) made a small but disruptive change from the earlier version of Firefox: the close button on the browsing tabs was moved from the right side to the left side of the tab. . . . now in the new beta (2.0B2), the tab close button is back again on the right. Argh. Cooper[base ']s Rule applies here: if it doesn[base ']t provide a noticeably-better change, don[base ']t change it from what[base ']s expected. Keep the close buttons (and the search changer) on the right. [Adaptive Path] OK, he's right that making the change, then changing back, is disruptive. But the change to having the close button on the tab was the right thing to do. Users of Safari have found it useful, and I certainly prefer it. Even after long use of Firefox, I find the single close button on the right to be just weird. It feels entirely wrong. Why should I have to select and view a tab before I can close it? When there are multiple tabs open, and I just want to close the ones I'm done with, it's simple to read the title and click the tab's close button. That's the behavior that I expect, and want. Hang muscle memory, you'll learn fast enough. 8:52:23 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

© Copyright 2002-2006 Fred Sampson. Last update: 10/2/06; 8:55:20 PM.