5

right now, in compact mode, the url bar starts in the middle for a new window and it moves to the left incrementally after new tabs populate on the right side.

making the url bar stay at the same place in compacy mode will prevent the UI element jumping too much which would feel more stable and less distractive.

here is a markup of the proposed effect.
the url bar might feel too long when compared to a single tab in this case so maybe can even reduce the length a little bit to make it look better. (i also place the + right beside the tab, placing the + on the far right is just too much work to reach to)

  • Vlad replied to this.

    mazil You mean for it to start on the left side even when just one tab?

        Vlad
        yes so that it doesn't move after adding new tabs.

        • Vlad replied to this.

            mazil That would make it not symetric in the window?

                Vlad
                yeah unfortunately.
                if you open multiple tabs , it will ultimately become asymmetrical.
                It's just being asymmetrical at the beginning where there are no tabs would feel pretty weird at least given the current UI.
                with this being said, however, i still feel like it's better to make it asymmetrical at the beginning to trade for the jumping-around. But to make it feel less weird maybe need a different UI which will make it deviate from Safari-like for sure.

                    A compromise might be to the have the left edge of the URL bar fixed to the left side of the toolbar (adjusting for toolbar buttons) and only ever resize the right edge of it, never shift its position. At the same time right edge of the rightmost tab is fixed to the right side (adjusting for toolbar buttons) and every time new tabs are opened the URL bar gets shorter to make room for them. This way URL bar + tabs will always be symmetrical and always be the same total width.

                    When there is only 1 tab open, the URL bar would be really long, getting shorter each time a tab is opened (down to a specified minimum width of course). I think a long URL bar would be less annoying than a ever shifting URL bar.

                      mazil Yes! That looks really good. Though I'd probably centre it (so that the distance between the left side of the URL bar and the left edge of the window, is the same as the distance between the right edge of the rightmost tab and the right edge of the window).

                      Any text in the URL bar would need to be left aligned too I think.

                      And pinned tabs could be the one thing that does resize the URL bar "from the left", i.e. when there's a pinned tab the left edge of the leftmost one because the new left edge of the entire widget (which is always centred horizontally)

                          Xyth
                          haha but i feel like having such a long url bar at the beginning looks too weird lol


                          i don't know why but this doesn't bother me even it's not symmetrical

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