Loading indicator....

[McThick]

Something I have always found useful in other browsers, but conspicuously absent in Pheonix, is a little animation or icon that indicates that SOMEthing is happening when I am trying to load a very large image or page. Since Pheonix is supposed to be leaner than other browsers, I think that having an icon that changes color based upon activity, rather than an animation, would be the best way to go.


//McThick

[laszlo]

You can already get this. Go to View > Toolbars > Customize and drag the "M" symbol to one of your toolbars. Other load indicators are the red stop button (if you're using the default theme) or the spinning arrows on the tabs.

[flii]

hehe. i didn't see it at first either. don't feel bad. in phoenix it's called a "throbber".

[old Neil Parks]

Using the Customize function, drag the Throbber to the top menu bar, to the right of "Help". Then insert a "Flexible Space" between the "Help" and the Throbber.

That's where the Throbber belongs!

[djst]

Since Pheonix is supposed to be leaner than other browsers, I think that having an icon that changes color based upon activity, rather than an animation, would be the best way to go.

That's exactly what the stop button does.

[rb]

just like in Opera: how many objects, size, percentage etc

[DippyTwitty]

Because I usually hide the status bar, I'd like to see the circular, spinning arrows that show in the tabs while a given tab is loading, actually show a "pie-chart" sort of animation, that, in addition to some obvious animation to show that it's busy, also shows the percentage complete, basically the same as the progress-bar does on the status bar.

Seems like a minor thing, but I think it'd be cool

Dip

[alanjstr]

Because I usually hide the status bar, I'd like to see the circular, spinning arrows that show in the tabs while a given tab is loading, actually show a "pie-chart" sort of animation, that, in addition to some obvious animation to show that it's busy, also shows the percentage complete, basically the same as the progress-bar does on the status bar.

Seems like a minor thing, but I think it'd be cool

Dip

I just make the tab text a different color while it is still loading. No tab-icons to waste space for me.

[DippyTwitty]

Forgive my innocence, but how on earth would that do what I'm asking???? All that would do is what the spinning arrows do now - tell me that it's busy.

That said, I like your suggestion over the spinny arrows, because it saves valuable screen space, which is one of my relentless pursuits

But I'd still like it if there were some indicator that had a percentage-complete kind of visual cue.

Dip

[sessamoid]

I filed a related mozilla bug. Please read the discussion on that bug and its dependencies, and tell me what you think. The bug was closed, re-opened, and has basically languished in obscurity.

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=98474

For a variety of reasons I think the throbber is an inadequate feedback. Ideally, feedback on a clicked link should be as immediate as possible. The throbber fails this in several ways:

1) it requires the user to distract his focus of attention from the clicked link to the throbber.
2) throbbers are by design almost all graphics with gradually changing colors and objects, which requires you to hold it in the center of your vision for at least a second or two before the result is obvious. It takes longer if there is no result.
3) if there is no desired activity, then the user has to relocate the cursor, reacquire the target with the cursor, and try clicking again. This has to be repeated until the user gets the desired result.

I honestly think that internet explorer does this better with the audible feedback, though old versions of Konqueror had an equally effective visual feedback. Sadly, current versions of Konqueror no longer have the tiny zoom-rectangles animation.

This issue is one big reason I've always liked the Mac interfaces. All menu choices give you immediate feedback by flashing once or twice quickly. In Windows, you can misclick a menu item and you won't know until you sit around and finally decide that something should have happened by now. A similar flash once or twice on a clicked link would work equally well in a browser, I think.

[Stefan]

A similar flash once or twice on a clicked link would work equally well in a browser, I think.

Um, the webpage can already apply a:active to changfe the color when you click. Wouldn't your suggestion break that functionality?

[sessamoid]

------- Additional Comment #7 From Matthew `mpt' Thomas (gone) 2001-09-07 01:49 -------

> The idea of violating someone's CSS/HTML markup with our own little link
> animations seems wrong

The reader's CSS is more important than the author's. The W3C says so.

I also happen to agree. I don't care what the page author intended if it interferes with the usability of the page.

[DippyTwitty]

it's already quite enough to have the throbber / status bar / _and_ the progress meter

I disagree strongly with this, as do others, but in my case its because I usually turn the status bar and throbber off because they are a waste of screen space. I think we've got the link itself, the title bar / tab and of course the mouse cursor, all of which are good visual cues, and the former and latter are right where the users eyeballs are already. It'd be great to see some of this happen- thanks for the thread, guys!

Especially if whatever animation gets implemented was like a progress bar

Dip

[flii]

i like looking at the throbber. it's the only one i use out of the stop/throbber/status bar mix. i wouldn't like having my links all change weird colors or tick me off by flashing. i associate flashing with ads. the first computer i used was a mac (since many schools have mac instead of pcs) and i like pcs better. there are strong reasons why i'm not using a mac, but nobody cares and i won't go into it. however, if you want flashy links like you say are in macs, get a mac. i'll keep my throbber over a stop button, status bar, or flashy stuff. i hate annoying noises and visual displays when all i want to do is surf.

maybe this could be an extension? you'd have what you like, simple surfers wouldn't have what they don't want, and we all live happily every after. even on that bug report you have strong haters of sounds *and* an option for your userchrome.css.

<- proud to have kept that post clean.

[laszlo]

------- Additional Comment #7 From Matthew `mpt' Thomas (gone) 2001-09-07 01:49 -------

> The idea of violating someone's CSS/HTML markup with our own little link
> animations seems wrong

The reader's CSS is more important than the author's. The W3C says so.

I also happen to agree. I don't care what the page author intended if it interferes with the usability of the page.

You can easily implement this behaviour yourself: just put Stefan's suggestion into your userContent.css:

Code: Select all

a:active {
  color: red !important;
}


This way you're getting the desired effect on any page, overriding the author's style, if any. This is exactly what the W3C says: it's not the job of the application to override, it's yours, the user's.