Disable the title bar separator by default
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Authored by fvogt on Feb 10 2018, 5:18 PM.

Details

Summary

Since the removal of the heuristics this seems to be very much disliked by many.
As there is now a configuration option, disabling this by default seems like
the best option.

This diff's purpose is mainly to raise this topic for discussion.

Diff Detail

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R31 Breeze
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master
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fvogt created this revision.Feb 10 2018, 5:18 PM
Restricted Application added a project: Plasma. · View Herald TranscriptFeb 10 2018, 5:18 PM
fvogt requested review of this revision.Feb 10 2018, 5:18 PM

Strawpoll linked from this reddit post:
http://www.strawpoll.me/15036330/r
Looks like the majority does not like the separator.

ngraham added a comment.EditedFeb 10 2018, 5:35 PM

If we turn it off by default, the set of people who will deliberately go and turn it on will be so small that it might make more sense to just remove it entirely.

The only people who seem to notice and and care use use Breeze Dark or another non-default theme, where it's very visible. On standard breeze it's subtle to the point of almost disappearing (calling into question what the point is, in fact).

We might be able to please everyone by re-adding the visibility heuristic to programmatically disable it for Breeze Dark users, but also keeping the force-disable option for people who see it with other themes but don't like it.

Alternatively, maybe we could experiment with using a less bold color. Breeze Dark users might not mind it so much if it were a neutral gray rather than the current very in-your-face neon turquoise.

+1 for turning off by default or removing altogether.

januz added a subscriber: januz.Feb 10 2018, 10:09 PM

I can't +1 this hard enough. There's no point in having a line separating the titlebar from the window. For users that want their titlebars the same color as the window it just gets in the way, and for users that want a clear separation it adds nothing (since there's already the background color change to visually separate them).

Can't we make it a tri-state thing? Always on, heuristic (default, like we used to have), disabled?

Can't we make it a tri-state thing? Always on, heuristic (default, like we used to have), disabled?

Like that idea.

rizzitello added a subscriber: rizzitello.EditedFeb 21 2018, 8:59 PM

I'm a breeze dark user and the current color is just way to strong on this theme as @ngraham said above. It was quite jarring to have this bright line on my window out of nowhere. If we can not find a more muted color then my vote its +1 disable

mart added a subscriber: mart.Mar 23 2018, 2:34 PM

shouldn't make it worse for everybody to make it better for the subset who use a dark theme.
at most, should be if the palette color is darker than something, draw it, otherwise don't

so +1 for 3state

+1 for tri-state as a compromise, but I still don't really see the point, as in Breeze light it's almost invisible even when on. Would also approve of off-by-default or even removing it entirely.

ngraham accepted this revision.Sep 13 2018, 2:05 AM

I think all the +1s here deserve to amount to at least one green checkbox. :)

This revision is now accepted and ready to land.Sep 13 2018, 2:05 AM
abetts accepted this revision as: abetts.Sep 13 2018, 2:49 AM
romangg accepted this revision.Sep 13 2018, 4:55 AM
romangg added a subscriber: romangg.

It's unnecessary bling imo. And it can interfere with in-window elements (Firefox for example marks the active tab with a very similar colored line at the top). I would say let's try it out and listen for feedback in 5.14 cycle if people miss it.

It's unnecessary bling imo. And it can interfere with in-window elements (Firefox for example marks the active tab with a very similar colored line at the top). I would say let's try it out and listen for feedback in 5.14 cycle if people miss it.

+1, I say let's go for it. Our short release cycles make this a good approach IMHO: we can get real feedback quickly, and react accordingly.

So far, I think the feedback about the line has been mostly negative since it turned on by default, so I don't think this will cause any great consternation among our users, but let's give it a try and find out for sure.

This revision was automatically updated to reflect the committed changes.

I'll be that one person here who likes the separator and notices it easily on the Breeze theme.

I have no objections to changing the default, but "just removing it entirely" is not an option.

I think this line's goal is not really to separate the title bar from window content, but instead to make the transition smoother and emphasize style consistency.

Take a look at these 2 screenshots, for example.

The one without the line looks very rectangular and sharp for eyes, as if someone has cut window decorations aggressively.
The other, in my opinion, has a more natural, friendly transition and shares color with application controls.

I don't have user stats, though.