0
Planned

Draw tabbar in content area / theming support

Ethan Bailey 12 years ago updated by Joel Thornton 12 years ago 0

Wow. Way beyond any expectations I ever had for a windowed side tabs implementation. All the extra features are excellent. But I just don't know if I could ever get used to having the browser unmaximized. I hate the look of the window border, the wasted space, and the constant threat of accidentally resizing the windows. Is it not possible to draw the tabbar in the content area? Why not have it popup/autohide over the edge of the currently displayed webpage, or shift the page content over to make room? Anyway, keep up the great work! PS: The option of a dark background would be nice. Thanks!

Answer

Answer
Planned

It is technically possible to have the tabbar appear inside pages, but unfortunately it's not possible for every type of page (e.g. not on chrome://* pages, http://*.png, ftp://*, ...); and that is the main reason I didn't take that approach. That and the fact that it would take significantly more resources to draw/maintain a tabbar within every open tab.

The real proper fix for the issue you describe is for the Chrome team to implement a true sidebar API for extensions to use. They had one mostly working in 2011, but decided to cancel the whole project and delay the implementation until 2013 soonest. Given that, I decided a "best approximation" solution would have to suffice until then.

Assuming you're on Windows, a possible partial solution for the resizing issue is just to maximize the docked-to window whenever you want the maximized effect. I agree it's not pretty having two windows open, but at least you can get a decent approximation of a true maximized-window-with-sidebar that way. For what it's worth, it took me a couple weeks to get used to the "not really maximized" look, I don't notice it anymore.

If you have multiple monitors you might also try turning off the "allow Sidewise to unmaximize the dock window" option and see if that suits you.

I like the black/theming idea, and am marking this issue as "planned" until I get to implementing a proper theming system. It's all just CSS driven styling so it should be pretty easy for myself and others to produce new themes.

Planned

It is technically possible to have the tabbar appear inside pages, but unfortunately it's not possible for every type of page (e.g. not on chrome://* pages, http://*.png, ftp://*, ...); and that is the main reason I didn't take that approach. That and the fact that it would take significantly more resources to draw/maintain a tabbar within every open tab.

The real proper fix for the issue you describe is for the Chrome team to implement a true sidebar API for extensions to use. They had one mostly working in 2011, but decided to cancel the whole project and delay the implementation until 2013 soonest. Given that, I decided a "best approximation" solution would have to suffice until then.

Assuming you're on Windows, a possible partial solution for the resizing issue is just to maximize the docked-to window whenever you want the maximized effect. I agree it's not pretty having two windows open, but at least you can get a decent approximation of a true maximized-window-with-sidebar that way.

If you have multiple monitors you might also try turning off the "allow Sidewise to unmaximize the dock window" option and see if that suits you.

I like the black/theming idea, and am marking this issue as "planned" until I get to implementing a proper theming system. It's all just CSS driven styling so it should be pretty easy for myself and others to produce new themes.

Answer
Planned

It is technically possible to have the tabbar appear inside pages, but unfortunately it's not possible for every type of page (e.g. not on chrome://* pages, http://*.png, ftp://*, ...); and that is the main reason I didn't take that approach. That and the fact that it would take significantly more resources to draw/maintain a tabbar within every open tab.

The real proper fix for the issue you describe is for the Chrome team to implement a true sidebar API for extensions to use. They had one mostly working in 2011, but decided to cancel the whole project and delay the implementation until 2013 soonest. Given that, I decided a "best approximation" solution would have to suffice until then.

Assuming you're on Windows, a possible partial solution for the resizing issue is just to maximize the docked-to window whenever you want the maximized effect. I agree it's not pretty having two windows open, but at least you can get a decent approximation of a true maximized-window-with-sidebar that way. For what it's worth, it took me a couple weeks to get used to the "not really maximized" look, I don't notice it anymore.

If you have multiple monitors you might also try turning off the "allow Sidewise to unmaximize the dock window" option and see if that suits you.

I like the black/theming idea, and am marking this issue as "planned" until I get to implementing a proper theming system. It's all just CSS driven styling so it should be pretty easy for myself and others to produce new themes.