[buug] mozilla

[Ian Zimmerman]

itz> I've become somewhat fed up with the way I use mozilla, and I'd
itz> like to customize its UI (beyond what the Edit|Preferences dialog
itz> allows).  I have read about things like RDF and XUL and I think
itz> what I want to do is possible, but ... where are the fine
itz> documents?  Not on mozilla.org as far as I can see.

itz> More generally, can I add my own menus and keybindings as in
itz> Emacs?

Claude> A couple of thoughts, none of which answer your questions: How
Claude> is that you wish your web browser to behave?  What,
Claude> specifically, has got your dander up?

UI elements that I use 1% of the time but take 10% of the avaliable
screen space, and cannot be hidden because hiding will them also hide
something useful :(  That is, the grouping of items in the toolbars is
wrong for me.

The issue of customizing searches arises because I want to hide the
whole location toolbar, but the Search thing in the menu doesn't do
the same thing as the Search button which I would thus lose.

Also, using bookmarks is a Satan vs. Lucifer choice for me.
Navigating the bookmark menus is awkward because the submenus get too
deep too fast and many submenus will be unexpectedly flipped or
shifted to fit on the screen; OTOH activating from the bookmark window
requires the straining behaviors of double- or right-clicking.  The
closest to the interface I'd like is actually simply opening the file
bookmarks.html in the browser; but it should have a two-level TOC, to
avoid scrolling through just to find the particular item I need.

Claude> Have you examined any of the other Gecko-based browsers?  I've
Claude> been fairly happy with Galeon.  It's basically Mozilla but
Claude> with more attention given to the user-interface (which uses
Claude> GTK instead of XUL).  

Requires Gnome ...

Claude> I'd also recommend taking a look at w3m which is what I use as
Claude> my default browser.  

Never seen this one, thanks for the tip.

Two browsers I have tried are Skipstone and BrowseX.  Skipstone was
yet another Gecko wrapper, simple and fast, but now seems to be dead.
BrowseX is a completely different beast, Tcl-based, and _very_
impressive (give it a try someday), but unfortunately it doesn't have
hierarchical bookmarks.

Thanks again for help,

-- 
Ian Zimmerman, Oakland, California, U.S.A. I did not vote for Emperor Bush.
GPG: 433BA087  9C0F 194F 203A 63F7 B1B8  6E5A 8CA3 27DB 433B A087