Two columns design

[dtonon]

I had a request for a two columns design: on the left the feed, on the right the thread.
Could make sense for a horizontal view; it could also pop up automatically when the width is > XX.
We should also tweak the back action, but this should not be a big problem from an UX perspective.
@mikedilger @bu5hm4nn opinions?

[bu5hm4nn]

I think it's a great idea and good use of the extra space available on desktop.

There will be a whole bunch of edge cases since we currently only ever use one timeline rendering, but totally doable in my opinion.

I think I would make a button to fold it in and out, not make it dependent on a window size.

[dtonon]

We need also to evaluate how to manage the compose window, that currently is anchored to bottom/top and has full width.
If even @mikedilger think it is a good feature I will develop a complete design proposal.

[mikedilger]

I'm not excited about this for a number of reasons.

First, I'm only ever looking at the main feed or the thread, I don't see a use case where I need them both on the screen so that I can look back and forth between them. So all this UI does is make it clear that the thread is associated with one post on the left, which seems trivial for the amount of work required. Maybe I misunderstand why you guys think this is a good idea.

Second, as to the work required, this is not just a UI change, it fundamentally changes what we pre-compute... two feeds instead of one. Right now feed.rs has functions like "set_feed_to_thread" which not only triggers actions at relays, but changes what recompute does. It's not impossible to make a much more complex system that handles this, but it is a huge uphill task.

Lastly, I don't think we should be opening up more and more avenues of UI work. I feel we have lots of existing UI work that has trouble keeping up.

[dtonon]

The two-column design is quite standard in email clients, it helps to move quickly between conversations with a small mouse movement or key press, without the need toclose the window (or reach the back button in Gossip).
Personally, I use Gossip in a tall window, and I think I would not choose this sort of visualization, I prefer interfaces that are less crowded with content.

I cannot say anything about the technical complexity, if it is so hard, of course we can just park this idea, it doesn't have any priority.

Lastly, I don't think we should be opening up more and more avenues of UI work. I feel we have lots of existing UI work that has trouble keeping up.

I cannot disagree.

[mikedilger]

The two-column design is quite standard in email clients, it helps to move quickly between conversations with a small mouse movement or key press, without the need toclose the window (or reach the back button in Gossip).

I guess that makes some sense, if you wanted to click on a post on the left, then a different post on the left it would be just one more click instead of two.

[dtonon]

Related discussion: #522
Let's keep this issue for the possible future development.