[The fox, only better] add-on compatibility: positioning bug

[Drugoy]

This issue is very similar to issue #142, but is related to compatibility with a quite popular The fox, only better add-on.. That add-on hides the nav-bar until user hovers any top toolbars and then the nav-bar re-appears. The thing is that it gets drawn above content-area (over the page). Thus, when that add-on is installed and nav-bar is shown - it fully overlays findbar, so findbar gets hidden behind nav-bar.

[Quicksaver]

First off, The Fox, Only Better is also mine. ;)

And yeah, it's true, right now it overlays the find bar completely. I don't see this as a big hindrance because you're using either one or the other, I can't see why you'd need both visible at the same time. When you're in the find bar and need the nav-bar you just have to move your mouse. And when you're in the nav-bar and need the find bar, you'd just need to do the same by moving the mouse down, or at most click somewhere in the content area to unfocus the nav-bar and let it hide.

Athough to be honest, I let it stay this way because I honestly don't see any other way of doing it. I'm not going to move the find bar with the toolbars, because that'd require a lot of extra calculations that would make it lag for sure (the nav-bar in TheFOB doesn't actually change places when it extends, I just tell it "go full width", while the find bar on top would need to ask the browser "so, where should I go?"; big difference in processing).

So I'm open to suggestions if you have any. :)

[Drugoy]

First off, The Fox, Only Better is also mine. ;)

I didn't even notice that at first, ha-ha :D As for your arguments - I accept them. As for my suggestions - I'd suggest adding checks to TFOB:

1. check if findbar is open. If not - then display nav-bar normally.
2. check if findbar's position is top right. If not - then display nav-bar normally.
3. get findbar's width and show nav-bar with width == %firefox_window_width% - %findbar_width%.

I'll totally understand you if you'd choose to just ignore the bug, since it's a very little nuisance that might require too much efforts/calcs to be fixed, so feel free to close this issue, if you like.

[Quicksaver]

1. get findbar's width and show nav-bar with width == %firefox_window_width% - %findbar_width%.

This would work in theory. The problem I see is that the find bar is not so small that it would only make a small difference in terms of taking screen size. Even on medium-large screens, unless the user is running firefox maximized (and maybe even maximized?), this would compress the nav-bar a lot. This would be especially bad if you're not using Omnibar to merge the search and location bars, or if you have a lot of buttons in the nav-bar, or if you use text in the find bar's button instead of icons (and I'm planning to add the ability to show both so that's even worse). The location bar would just become tiny, writing on it would be a challenge at best.

Another issue is that the find bar changes size a bit often when you're using it. If the page was loading in the background, and nav-bar was showing and the find bar updated for some reason, that would cause trouble when resizing the nav-bar (because of panel popups, cursor position if you're typing, maybe more?)

But maybe that's a wrong assumption. Can't hurt to experiment with this a little.

[Drugoy]

The problem I see is that the find bar is not so small that it would only make a small difference in terms of taking screen size.

It will be quite small if you tune it the way I suggested in the other ticket.

Another issue is that the find bar changes size a bit often when you're using it.

Not by much, if you tune it's ergonomics as I suggested.

• you can even make it's width static: just reserve some space for the match info (say, 7-8 symbols, enough to display stuff like "145/609" or "145/999+").
• Take into consideration that there are a lot of people that are totally unsatisfied with the Australis changes and that they might use styles that shrink panels.

With a hardcore style like this:

#nav-bar *
{
    padding: 0 !important;
    margin: 0 !important;
}

makes my fx look like this: https://i.imgur.com/8IC8ZtY.png

Maybe it's worth adding some more checks, like setting minimal width for Fx window for the Findbar to get onto the same line as nav-bar, I don't know.

[Quicksaver]

Even with the changes you suggested (which I will try to do my best to add), the find bar can never have a fixed width. There would just be a lot to calculate when doing that, and that's not even dwelling into font sizes (which vary with OS and user settings), themes, localizations... I get dizzy just thinking about all of that...

Besides, those changes will be optional, and while you might apply them, others might not. I can't make the add-on behave differently based only on how compact the bar is. If it's at the top, it's at the top and should always behave the same way, otherwise (as the user) there's no telling how it will react when you change some settings.

Take into consideration that there are a lot of people that are totally unsatisfied with the Australis changes and that they might use styles that shrink panels.

The problem is not with the size of the panels, but with anchoring them correctly to the nodes that opened them. I already have to do quite a few "neat" things in TheFOB to ensure that the panels are anchored correctly. Moving them with the find bar is just too much I'm afraid.

[Ludomancer]

Any expected date for this change? It's kind of annoying to see it overlayed by The Fox.

[Quicksaver]

No, sorry. I haven't forgotten about it, I just haven't come up with a good way to do it yet.