On Jul 2, 1:07 am, johnjbarton <[email protected]> wrote: > On Jul 1, 8:52 pm, whatcould <[email protected]> wrote: > ... > > > 2. The other issue is the X button. I'm sure I'll get used to it > > eventually, but there's some big cognitive dissonance going on with > > the X (close) button and the Firebug icon. I know now that clicking > > the X _disables_ fb, and clicking the bug icon just hides it. But that > > was not immediately apparent, and I'm having a hard time teaching > > myself the new behavior. I have the feeling that we expect the > > opposite to be true -- clicking the bug enables FB, so clicking the > > bug again would disable it, right? [nope]. And the X says to me, > > "close this interface", not, "disable firebug". > > But you are focusing on the first experience of a 1.3 user. Consider > the routine experience of a 1.4 user or a new 1.4 user.
As a relatively new 1.3 user (and having not yet tried 1.4,) the top- right "X" seemed to me, intuitively, to mean "close this pane," not "exit Firebug." Given that there's no explicit "minimize" button, but there -is- an explicit "detach" button, I equate the "X" with minimizing. Right now, I primarily use Firebug to dress up poorly formatted pages for printing :-) I've done a lot of web development over the years (seriously, a LOT, and for YEARS, like, starting in 1996, you whippersnappers! :-) .) My "fix screwed up print formatting workflow" looks like this: 0) visit site, decide I need Firebug because someone doesn't understand media="print" 1) click the bug in the lower right corner to open FB 2) do stuff 3) click the "X" to see more of the page (no, I'm not a "detacher," in this context.) 4) looks good? GOTO 7 5) still ugly? click the bug again to "restore" FB 6) GOTO 2 7) click the "X" to "close" FB. 8) C-w to close the tab. In my mental model, when I've finished my tweaks and click "X" the final time, it doesn't matter to me whether or not FB is "merely hidden," "inactive," "suspended," or some other more specific and accurate term. It only matters that it's "gone." Since I'll be closing the window as soon as I've saved/printed/whatever, I'm not really aware of any resource hogging issues. That said... were I using FB with my developer's hat on, if clicking the "X" made all of my state disappear (e.g., logs, network traffic, console, etc.) I'd balk at that... Given that there's no explicit "minimize" button, I wouldn't expect the "X" to clear out everything. In my mental model, Firebug is "always on," waiting for me to click the bug or "Inspect Element" to get it to the foreground. If there -are- resource hogging issues, then I'd expect more fine- grained and visible control over FB's presence/absence/dormancy/etc. In my mental model, then, based on integrating my learned experience with WIMP UIs in general, here's what I'd "expect" of a tool that distinguished the "active/inactive" pair from "visible/hidden": > > The first use of the Firebug icon activates the page *and* shows the > UI. The 2nd click hides the UI, 3rd shows, 4th hides.... > > So the Firebug icon allows you to peek at the page without the UI in > the way. This is a huge win for designers especially. If we use this > button for deactivation, then we lose it for hide (minimize). I think > that is not a good tradeoff. > > Deactivation is destructive: all of the console/script/net panel data > will be erased. That ought to be harder, for the same reason we have > to endure those awful confirm on delete dialogs. > > If you are using firebug on a page, the chances are that you won't > close Firebug at all until you want to test the page without Firebug. > So during most of your development you will close the whole tab rather > than closing Firebug. > > jjb --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Firebug" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/firebug?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
