Dual Pane - Formal Proposal Thread

[Worship Mesh!]

@ serendipity and the others who dare to disagree with Mesh:

When do you finaly realize that Mesh is always right?

Yes, sure, at first sight, Mesh may seem like a unsympathetic, big headed asshole who you would like to punch in his face. I can understand that.

But here is the revelation:
Mesh does have the best taste, Mesh always knows the right answer, Mesh can always distinguish bad from good, only Mesh is allowed to preach ex cathedra - and yes, if you believe it or not, the other day I saw him walking on water.

So I hope you all behave better from now on.

[Mesh]

Hmm don't want to argue here, but by analogy: my car has two colors depending on if its in the sun or shade. Good selling point there for me.

That's exactly correct - the change in lighting changes the color as you see it. That's precisely why you calibrate monitors in the exact lighting situation you're going to use it in.

OK lets say it is different colors then, but as long its very light its not that bad i think. And my problem with yellow highlight is this situation:
1) I have the classic style tabs
2) I have turned off the yellow highlight.
3) Focus is not on either panes (on AB or tree or elsewhere)
There is no way to find out which pane is active. And imagine someone like you who doesnt like tabs has just one tab per pane, if he switches the tab bar OFF then its even worse. The active/inactive state of the pane should be visible on the list not tab (since one can hide it) in my opinion.

Which is why I made the alternative suggestion and mockup of the line under the tab bar - which, in my suggestion, would be user customizable in color.

[Mesh]

Hmm... sounds like someone familiar... who's been here before...

[Gandolf]

I assume that when switching to tree, address bar etc... the active pane would still be highlighted. It must be otherwise, in the case of the address bar, how do you know which directory you are pointing to?

Also, if the marking is on the tab, there are already two colours for tabs plus the colour for the visual filter (and obviously the text colour). Would another colour really make it easier to identify active from inactive?

[Mesh]

I assume that when switching to tree, address bar etc... the active pane would still be highlighted. It must be otherwise, in the case of the address bar, how do you know which directory you are pointing to?

Absolutely.

Also, if the marking is on the tab, there are already two colours for tabs plus the colour for the visual filter (and obviously the text colour). Would another colour really make it easier to identify active from inactive?

Well, it's already established that for people who use tabs extensively, a tab-only indicator would not work well. The line underneath the tab bar would be much clearer, if you saw the mockup. Alternately, a shaded header bar would work just as well, but it's not compatible with the tabs, which is why that's out.

[serendipity]

@ serendipity and the others who dare to disagree with Mesh:

When do you finaly realize that Mesh is always right?

Yes, sure, at first sight, Mesh may seem like a unsympathetic, big headed asshole who you would like to punch in his face. I can understand that.

But here is the revelation:
Mesh does have the best taste, Mesh always knows the right answer, Mesh can always distinguish bad from good, only Mesh is allowed to preach ex cathedra - and yes, if you believe it or not, the other day I saw him walking on water.

So I hope you all behave better from now on.

I am an atheist, but seems like i found a new religion and meaning to life. Thanks for the enlightenment!

[ale]

Experimenting with the line, this is how it might look with Don suggestion, second shot would surely need more tweaking but it's just to give an idea and I'm a bit lazy drawing pixel perfect graphics

[Mesh]

Experimenting with the line, this is how it might look with Don suggestion, second shot would surely need more tweaking but it's just to give an idea and I'm a bit lazy drawing pixel perfect graphics

Oh, is *that* what he was referring to. Sure, that could work. But as mentioned before, the color would need to be customizable.

[Gandolf]

This thread is degenerating into the backbiting that it was before. Fortunately, I was too busy then to participate in any sensible discussion. The only reason I'm active at the moment is that I've been "confined to barracks" due to swine flu. However, next work I'll be back to working so my discussions will end.

I hope that whatever the final outcome is that it is beneficial to Don.

[j_c_hallgren]

I'm beginning to think we can't find one method that we all agree on so there might have to be at least a couple of user options on how it's done...personally, having used x2 before which shades the inactive pane in a light gray, that method would work better for me, as long as I could choose the color...since with my vison issues, something as subtle as a border/line may not get my attention as it used to, so I'd rather deal with a bit of flashing and be able to know where I am.

And serendipity is right in that users who don't "do" tabs can't rely on any method that marks them...thus a border would be one alternative for these type users, even though we may not like the looks of of...

Having an ability to define the width/thickness (within some small range) of any border/line would likely be needed as some may prefer a thin and others a thicker one to see it better.

Also, when y'all make screen shots/mockups, could you not make them quite so huge here in this thread? I've only got a 1024x768 laptop and some of them have been so large that I only see about a third of the image so it's hard to visualize what it would look like...and clickable thumbnails work best but take a touch more effort...thanks!

[admin]

Experimenting with the line, this is how it might look with Don suggestion, second shot would surely need more tweaking but it's just to give an idea and I'm a bit lazy drawing pixel perfect graphics

Yes, this is exactly what I meant.

[Mesh]

Yes, this is exactly what I meant.

I could live with that.

[mwb1100]

Experimenting with the line, this is how it might look with Don suggestion, second shot would surely need more tweaking but it's just to give an idea and I'm a bit lazy drawing pixel perfect graphics

Yes, this is exactly what I meant.

FWIW, I prefer Mesh's unbroken active pane indicator line to the one that breaks for the active tab.

[ale]

If we explore other ideas/positions? please look for example something like this
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/6504 ... ht007x.png

and would work also for people without tabs
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1484 ... ght008.png

it might be customizable as requested
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/5341 ... ght009.png

[phatmankerr]

Ales's gold line and serendipity's full list outline both get my vote (although would be interested in the how the full list outline would look with additional tabs?). In either case being able to customise the colour would be handy (just to allow it to fit in with different themes).

Not a huge fan of the changing list background colour (downloaded X2 just to have a look - not overly impressed - with the effect or with X2 to be honest - give me XY any day of the week).

Just my humble opinion.