Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 23rd Sep 2007 13:43 UTC
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RE[2]: Tabbed interface contradiction
by devurandom on Mon 24th Sep 2007 12:39
in reply to "RE: Tabbed interface contradiction"
Funny. To me, every application should use tabs. Office applications the most - I heard OO.org is moving towards that and I await that day. There's nothing I hate more than having N windows opened for the same application. I even would love a Fluxbox-like "tabbing" of different applications being implemented on all window managers...
By the way, I think this just demonstrates that the possibility of personalization must be king, instead of relying on the "the dumbest fits all" mentality of some usability experts (yes, GNOME folks, that's for you, sorry).
RE[3]: Tabbed interface contradiction
by netpython on Mon 24th Sep 2007 13:01
in reply to "RE[2]: Tabbed interface contradiction"




Member since:
2005-06-29
That's not a contradiction at all. Preference panels are just that - preference panels, and not applications. Tabs in preference panels have absolutely nothing to do with those in applications.
I detest tabs in applications because to me, each window represents a different workflow, and therefore, I want to manipulate it as one. When I'm instant messaging, I may have, say, 4 different conversations. Some of those are highly active and important - I want those to be bigger. Other ones might only get like one msg each 30 minutes - those can be small. Even other ones, like the conversations I have with Eugenia, are little blurbs of activity for like 5 minutes, then nothing for 3 hours, and then another blurb of activity. Each of those different cases requires its own window size.
On top of that, I want *one* place to switch between workflows - the taskbar. When you use tabs, more often than not you end up with multiple places to switch workflows (the tab bar in Firefox, the tab bar in Pidgin, the taskbar itself, and so on).
Utter, utter, hell. Tabbed applications are the seed of the devil for someone like me. The only thing I hate more in graphical user interfaces are vertical text labels.
Imagine my horror when I see a vertially text labeled... Tab.
Edited 2007-09-23 18:31 UTC