Status indicators in tabs

[Etan Reisner]

On Sat, Jun 23, 2007 at 06:25:59PM -0400, Evan Schoenberg wrote:
> Adium handles the status-in-tabs issue by using the status icon in
> the 'close widget' location; when hovered, it switches to the close
> widget.  This lets the space have dual functionality.
>
> I've heard from only a couple users over the course of the past 3
> years who find this behavior confusing; I've watched first time users
> who, when asked to close the tab,  immediately go for that location
> on the tab, presumably based on prior tab implementation experiences
> (Firefox, for example), and have their expectation confirmed by the
> switch on-hover.  (Many hit cmd-w, which is system standard for
> close, choosing not to use the mouse for the task at all).
>
> -Evan

I would guess that the fact that you have a system-standard close binding,
and presumably menu item, for this sort of thing, combined with the fact
that the default OS X red/green/blue (or whatever colors they are) only
have icon bits when hovered over play heavily into the number of
complaints about this that you have. I doubt that the numbers would hold
up so favorably in the Windows and X worlds.

I also just happen to dislike things changing semantics like that, labels
should be labels and buttons should be buttons, but I that's just a
personal thing.

	-Etan