
Project Tofino – A browser interaction experiment by Mozilla - snake_case
https://github.com/mozilla/tofino
======
greendestiny_re
There is no concise summary on what Project Tofino actually is and the readme
file is of no use, but here's my guess: modular browser UI. Firefox is
probably long overdue for some fresh set of features, though I'm not sure how
far the traditional UI can be pushed and still remain usable. I highly
recommend Jacob Nielsen's website [0] for an analysis of pros and cons of
customization and usability in general.

I see Project Tofino as a way for Mozilla to explore different customization
paradigms, strongly implying that the one shipped with Australis didn't take
on.

Now, is it possible to create an algorithmic, dynamically adjusting browser
UI? I can only speculate but I'm sure Project Tofino will be a very valuable
experience.

[0]
[https://www.nngroup.com/articles/customization](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/customization)

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shakna
Though it doesn't sound like the team leader even has a clear idea of what
they're trying to do [0], Tofino seems interesting.

One part of this "reinvent the browser" they're looking at is tab grouping,
potentially with heuristics. However, it does give me pause, as usually when
Firefox comes up, HN talks about how they always have 20+ tabs open at once.
(Anecdotally, many of my friends and family are the same).

[0] [https://medium.com/project-tofino/tofino-project-goals-
updat...](https://medium.com/project-tofino/tofino-project-goals-
update-f667f6082858)

~~~
landr0id
I really like Firefox's current tab groups and wish that Chrome provided
similar functionality. For me a better method would be to have the tab itself
be the group "parent" and expand when clicked.

For example: I'm on reddit's front page. I'll open links in new tabs, then go
to them later. It'd be great to have those auto-group under the parent front
page tab and hide out of view until later.

Are there videos, or any screenshots of what this current implementation looks
like? Like you said (and the GitHub readme explains) they don't really know
what they're doing yet, but it'd be nice to see how it differs in its current
state from traditional browsers, and might even convince me to give it a try.

~~~
sparkie
Opera had tab group behavior like you describe when it introduced tab groups
ahead of the other browsers. I'm not sure of the situation now since they
based their browser off chromium.

You can get the right kind of behaviour using the Tree Style Tabs extension in
Firefox, which is highly customizable. I've had a vertical tab bar for about a
decade now and I couldn't imagine using a "traditional browser interface".

~~~
icebraining
+1 for Tree Style Tabs; combined with "suspended" tabs, it provides exactly
what I need: a lightweight, integrated system for short term bookmarks.

