4.5 features

[Eugene Lee]

(my two cents)

On Wed, Feb 18, 2004 at 02:13:23PM -0700, Anthony Reimer wrote:
: 
: I've found many things to like about version 5, but I am still finding 
: that I miss a couple of UI things from the previous version that have 
: been eliminated (I did quickly scan the list archives to see if I 
: missed mention of either of these):
: 
: 1. Location bar as pop-up menu.
: 
: I routinely surf with only the Location bar visible. I had liked the 
: feature where I could use the triangle at the end of the location bar 
: as a pop-up history.
[...]

I am personally ambivalent about this feature.

: 2. Status Bar only when necessary.
[...]

I like having the status bar there all the time.  It resolves the
problem of overloading the Location field, provides the proper spot for
JavaScript changes to the statusline, lets the user know what clicking
that link does (e.g., go to the link, open in a new tab, open in a new
inactive tab, open in a new window, open in a new window before the
current window, etc.), shows the current state of the browser and what
it's doing, and other useful information.  However, it solves the most
important problem of OW 4.x redrawing the browser window every time the
status bar had to appear.  This jarred my UI experience in a negative
way.  The extra window redraws also ate CPU cycles, slowed down OW
unnecessarily, and lead to a worse UI experience.


-- 
Eugene Lee
http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/