All in the <head> – Ponderings and code by Drew McLellan –

Tabbed browsing in Safari

Tabbed browsing is a much-loved and common feature in modern browsers. I don’t know if you’ve seen Safari’s implementation, but the tabs are particularly attractive because they hang down from the chrome rather than sticking up from the page. Kinda like a bat. Neato.

But wait … these are document tabs aren’t they? Hasn’t Apple completely blown the visual metaphor clean out of the water here? All other OS X tabs that I’ve seen stick up from the document or panel. What’s the deal?

– 25 October 2003 –

8 Responses

25 Oct 2003

Judi

Safari’s tabs look nice, but there is functionality in Mozilla/Netscape/Firebird through the Tabbed Browsing Extension that blow Safari’s implementation away. After using Mozilla and now Firebird, I don’t think I can go back. In Safari I find myself out of habit double clicking on tabs expecting them to do what I want them to do, reordering tabs, dragging links to tabs and it does nothing.

25 Oct 2003

Jesse

The look of the tabs with Safari I definitely like, not sure if anyone cares about the visual metaphor.

I am anxious to see what Safari 1.1 brings to the table in regards to function. Yes Moz beats Safari for tab function and speed I don’t see Moz touching the bookmarks. I hear with Panther and Safari 1.1, Safari beats Moz for rendering. I just got use to Firebird too…

It would be nice if all your browsers could share the same bookmark file though, without monkeying.

26 Oct 2003

jackal

Firebird / Moz’s tabbed browsing has a lot over Safari’s implementation… I agree though, It’ll be interesting to see what Safari 1.1 will bring.

26 Oct 2003

Michael Z.

I think the tabs are flipping between alternate address fields. The address field is the browser user’s seat of power, and the title bar and viewport just hang off of it.

Tabs in Camino always felt a little odd to me, metaphor-wise, because the address field was outside the flipped area.

Safari’s tabs get a little bit visually confusing when there are only two. I have to stare for a split-second to decide whether the lighter or darker one is currently active.

Anyway, don’t tabs in Panther abandon the file folder metaphor and simply become a cluster of candy-coated buttons embedded in the top of a field set?

26 Oct 2003

Jesse

Anyway, don’t tabs in Panther abandon the file folder metaphor and simply become a cluster of candy-coated buttons embedded in the top of a field set?

Yes they do. Sort of an interesting look and feel to them, but only tabs in how they function.

The more I think about Safari 1.1 the more it burns that Apple refuses to update software like Safari for older OS’s. Their software update regime needs to be rethought before they start irritating their old gaurd of users.

26 Oct 2003

Drew

The thing that worries me with the updates policy is not that I now have to upgrade to be able to test in the latest version of Safari (I’m happy to upgrade), it’s that it becomes difficult testing in multiple versions. Can one install an old version of Safari on Panther? Or do we need to partition our disks and install two versions of OS X?

26 Oct 2003

Michael Z.

Keep in mind that the WebKit rendering engine is separate from Safari. If you can run Safari 1.0 on Panther, you would also need the old version of /System/Library/Frameworks/WebKit.framework. I wonder if putting it in your home library folder would work.

Maybe Apple will release Safari 1.1 for OS 10.2.x, to keep it’s rendering quality consistent across OS versions. I’m guessing that at some point, the newest WebKit will require some system resources that weren’t present in Jaguar.

And I just figured out how to use different versions of MSIE/Win in Virtual PC.

13 Sep 2006

Paul

I’m making the switch pretty soon from p.c to mac, and i’m looking for smthg other than safari. has anyone used camino?? is it as good as mozzilla. do you think i should use moz or camino?thank youPaul.