[Adium-devl] Source list in the message window (vertical PSMTabBarControl)

[Chris Forsythe]

On Apr 8, 2007, at 5:31 PM, Evan Schoenberg wrote:

> Ick, I should have been more clear:  There is not a single thing  
> about the screen shot in the previous email I *do* like as-is - I  
> was just demonstrating that I had the skeleton of a source-list  
> style vertical tabs implementation. No widgets are in the right  
> place or sized properly or anything like that :)  That said, I'm  
> glad to have sparked some discussion with it.
>

I think everyone thought along the same path here, that this was just  
the beginning work. :)

>> I think going with the hybrid close button/status icons is more
>> elegant than having both of them visible at once. I *really* don't
>> like have the close button appear only on the active tab, as it makes
>> quickly closing an inactive tab harder, since you don't know exactly
>> where the other close buttons are. Even if you have closing inactive
>> tabs disabled, doing a quick double-click to close isn't always a
>> guarantee to close a tab.
>
> I think I agree.  What would you say to badging the icon with the  
> close button/status icon combo?  It might look cluttered... I'm not  
> sure though.
>

I concur. I don't even think we need a number to be honest, just like  
we don't on the tabs we have now. An indication that there is new  
content should be good enough for starters.

>> - Are we going to throw status icons in here somewhere?
> Definitely... I think Kent's right about the close/status combo.
>
>> - That's a weird place to put the close widget, try on the left or  
>> right.
> *nod* if not the badge, far right, I think.
>

Agreed.

>> - What are we doing at the bottom of the sidebar?
> Hm.  Could this handle the overflow?  Show a sidebar with an action  
> button (it'd have the contents of the contextual menu for the  
> active chat, or something like that), and add an overflow chevron  
> next to it when there are more tabs than can fit?
>

If we're going to do that, we might as well just have a scroll bar. I  
don't think an action button would do so good to replicate the  
chevron overflow capabilities of a bottom tabs/top tabs usage. Thoughts?

>> Something like this? http://brok3n.org/rawr/LeftSidebar.jpg
>>
>> Or more like this? http://brok3n.org/rawr/RightSidebarFull.jpg
>>
>> Everyone knows I'm a fan of this one: http://brok3n.org/rawr/Old/ 
>> MessagePane.png
> OldMessagePane is definitely more modern looking :)  We can make it  
> look like a traditional source list as that suggests... the  
> 'popping' tab is an artifact of not avoiding some of the tab  
> drawing code, but I think it's a neat take on emphasizing which  
> chat is selected.  Any strong 'for' or 'against' feelings on it?
>
> (Those are Adam Iser's mockups, btw, for anyone who hasn't seen  
> them before).
>

The screenshot of what you got up to in the email this is a reply to  
looks kind of weird. If we're going to go source list, I'd think that  
a more traditional source list selection by darkening the selected  
area would be cool. I'd have to use it to be convinced whether one is  
better than the other honestly though.



>
>
> On Apr 8, 2007, at 10:58 AM, Kent Sutherland wrote:
>
>> You could take that one step further and try to combine the unread
>> message count, the close button and status button together. That
>> probably wouldn't work out, since the status icons are customizable.
>> It would certainly reduce tab clutter though. The tabs should  
>> probably
>> be a bit smaller, like the mockups Chris has. Unless we want some
>> iChatty special effects in the tabs, the larger tabs are mostly dead
>> space.
>
> I like that idea... we already combine the close and the status  
> icon, and the number alongside an 'unviewed content' status icon is  
> fairly duplicative anyways.  It shouldn't be too hard to code, and  
> it solves the problem of where to put the unread count so as not to  
> lok really cluttered.
>
>> The blue background and bigger tabs alone helped a lot, but I  
>> think we
>> could do better than slavishly copying iChat 4 :)
> Agreed!  iChat 4 is worth looking at for what's good and what's not  
> good... but copying is no fun :)
>

Seconded. We always look at other clients for guidance, but we  
shouldn't copy. Iser and I used to take screenshots of 7 clients side  
by side at a time and then run through what was good and bad about  
each, maybe we should do that here?

> Based on feedback so far and such, here's what I've got now:
>
> <Picture 1.png>
>
> The close widget is a little high and a little close to the right  
> edge... what else?


This is better, but feels a tad weird still.

- How does it look with text left aligned rather than centered? Note  
that I ask because the text in the bottom tab is off based on the  
(100) to the right, and that throws off all of the other text here.

- Can we try rounding the images corners, it might look prettier.

- That x just looks weird. It's not the positioning throwing me off  
here. Could be the size of all the other random things on the side  
there though being bigger than the x.

Chris
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