GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 548627
border under group names
Last modified: 2012-06-28 09:22:57 UTC
Quoting from Matthew review <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EmpathyVsPidginUsability>: > There was a border under the heading for each group, which was slightly > misleading. I agree with the sentiment; the border doesn't serve much purpose as the group names are already visually distinct.
Created attachment 117040 [details] [review] remove separators from contact list empathy-contact-list-store.c | 81 ++----------------------------------------- empathy-contact-list-store.h | 4 -- empathy-contact-list-view.c | 4 -- 3 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 84 deletions(-) You can't argue with a patch removing so much stuff :)
My problem with the bottom border (which I didn't describe fully in the wiki page) was that, in the absence of any other styling, it makes the group heading look more closely related to the contacts above it than to the contacts that are actually in the group. Possible solutions include adding extra whitespace above group names (though it might be tricky to make that look good and compact), and/or using a background tint or gradient instead of a border. (Fun fact: Pidgin has exactly the same issue, and Sean Egan told me that Pidgin copied the bottom border from Empathy in the first place.)
The idea comes from Gossip, I find it pretty nice...
I find the headers to be enough visually distinct as they have an expander and are not filled with presence status icons. Also I believe it is the theme role, not an application role, to decide how it should look, if headers should have a bottom border for example. And it is just not logical to use a *separator* to *join* things together (doesn't it sound like API-abuse?).
I would like to know if the GTK theme system is able to set itself and different style to the expander. If it's possible I think I'll mark the patch as commit-after-freeze.
I talked with Benjamin Berg and he says it is currently not possible.
Hm, I'm a bit unsure so... We need a way to visually see groups. When gossip introduced that separator all users where pleased because it's good looking. I'm rejecting this patch but I let the bug open. We need a way to let the theme engine do something beautiful :)
Confirming the bug as I think we all agree that this could be improved.
*** Bug 592445 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=141233 from bug# 592445 has a suggested mockup with extra spacing at the bottom of *expanded* groups within the contact list (but not contracted groups).
This bug has not had any significant activity in years. I would lean towards closing it, but instead I'll NEEDINFO it with an ultimatum question to be answered: "What would be considered visually better [than in the current release]?" If nobody can answer that question within six weeks or so, then it will probably never happen so we might just as well close it :)
There's a visual treatment for groups in this mockup: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5031519/empathy/buddy-list-new.png That said, I'm not a big fan of the expanders and would prefer a different approach (bug 670125).
Let's close this bug as the border is gone with the new roster. I opened bug #679030 about implementing Allan's nice design idea.