"badgolferman" <REMOVETHISbadgolferman@gmail.com> wrote in message news:xn0fzcr0sldqjja003@news.albasani.net...

> but those two toolbar buttons are in the most unintuitive position and
> completely different from all other browsers.

> Why MS chose to put them there is beyond me.


In IE7b1 the Stop button was tri-purpose: Go, Stop, and Refresh
and it was put where the the Go button has been forever--at the end
of the Address bar.

Unfortunately, too many people who are prone to howling failed to see
the elegance of this design so the tri-purpose button was broken into
two buttons to deal with those complaints.

In fact, though, its real purpose might be seen as a state indicator
as much as a button. After all, one can always use the equivalent
keys needed to perform each function to transition between states.
For example, typing stuff in the Address bar puts the indicator into
the Go state, so that's when you can use the Go button or press Enter
to submit its contents for processing. Then, for the short while that
rendering takes place you could see the button turn into a Stop icon;
so then you could either use it or the Esc key to signal that you wanted
rendering to finish as soon as possible. Another indicator that processing
was in this state IIRC was the busy-ring icon (aka throbber) which
appeared both in the Address bar and on the tab label but now appears
only (much less conspicuously IMO) on the tab label. Finally, once the
connection is quiesced and the rendering finished, the state changes
into the one that the browser is in most often, the refreshable state,
so then you can either click the Refresh button or press F5 (or press
Ctrl-F5). Breaking the button in two has unfortunately undermined
much of the original indicator value that it had been designed to have.


> Not being able to change location, size, look of
> the toolbars is stupid. I want to stay with IE but if it will not
> allow customization why should I when other browsers just as good or
> better do allow it? MS used to be quite generous with allowing users
> to customize GUIs, what happened?


Supposedly, the more customization options that are offered the greater
the "attack surface" that is provided for malware creators. To be safe,
and so as not to waste time trying to imagine all the nefarious purposes
extra options might be used for, simplicity wins.


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
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