Status indicators in tabs

[Evan Schoenberg]

Quoting Etan Reisner <pidgin at unreliablesource.net>:

> 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.
>
Ah, excellent point. I retract the suggestion - changing from pretty  
icon to clickable button on hover is indeed out of place in both  
Windows and X and would probably be confusing.

You're right: I'm very used to hovering buttons everywhere, such as  
the red/orange/green ones you mention for close/minimize/zoom... It's  
easy to get locked into the expectations of your usual platform if  
you're not careful!  I'll try to keep that more in mind in future  
suggestions.

-Evan