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[Bugzilla2007 <1347305@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(In reply to Josiah Bruner [:JosiahOne] (needinfo > CC) from comment #2)
> This was an intentional change made across platforms that makes text fields
> appear as single lines when text needs to be entered instead of the bulkier
> text fields.

Imho how bulky text fields appear depends much on their borders and the
overall design. Flat and borderless white against a normally lightgrey
platform background isn't so bulky. Perhaps the pre-TB31 recipient area
looked a bit nervous because there were so many borders all around. But
I don't recall noticing any visual problems until the big redesign...
It's also interesting to see the historical development of recipient
area, perhaps someone could add screenshots of TB2, TB3.1, etc... TB2 is
actually pretty close to the all-white background solution currently
favored by Josiah. (Which is nice, but the problem starts when the
formatting toolbar is added to that...)

> However, it seems the general consensus is that the gray (which
> originally wasn't so dark, but was changed to follow the Distro's styling)
> gives the appearance of disabled fields on many linux distributions
> (especially Ubuntu).

Thunderbird as a desktop email application might be a more
traditional/conservative thing in itself, where users (especially
corporate) might care more about UX/functionality than innovative
cutting edge design... But there's a more general question here how much
we want to be consistent with OS platform design, vs. introducing an
application-specific design... The answer is probably along the lines of
what Blake said in comment 23, we need to strike a balance between being
OS-conform and being ourselves as Thunderbird. Tricky...

> I think we could probably clean up the linux styling. I haven't heard of any
> Windows or OS X usability reports.

Well, aceman and I have raised our concerns for Windows, and duplicate
bug 1051638 (currently 5 votes) and bug 1061063 are both reported
against Windows. Several comments on bug 1051638 are quite vocal against
the current design. Even long-standing and loyal supporter like Anye
Yelf who really isn't known for idiosyncratic or exaggerated criticism.
Several users actually consider this a design bug and are quite
surprised to hear it was intentional...

Apart from the general issue, something which really disturbs me is that
we're not even consistent *within* the new design. As discussed on the
Toronto summit, we really shouldn't irritate users even more by having
two competitive designs for the same type of control, namely Sender-
dropdown vs. Recipient-type-dropdown. These are functionally exactly the
same, so they should look and behave the same. I'm seeing this quite
strongly on WinXP, where the dark-grey background of recipient type
dropdown offsets a lot against recipient area background and I'm always
wondering what's wrong with the recipient type that it still stands out
from the all-flat header although it's not focused or disabled.

-- 
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1347305

Title:
  Address fields are grey when composing messages

Status in Mozilla Thunderbird Mail and News:
  In Progress
Status in “thunderbird” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  When composing a message, any address field that does not have the
  cursor is shown as grey. While this is at first only a cosmetic
  glitch, it is also serious usability issue: Usually any field that can
  be edited is white and text that can't be edited is simply drawn grey.
  Now it looks like Thunderbird does not allow editing of the recipient
  addresses. Only when you try it regardless you discover that it is
  still editible.

  I attached a screenshot showing a stuffed up composer window.

  This bug appeared with the latest update of Thunderbird that was
  installed today.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
  Package: thunderbird 1:31.0+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-30.55-generic 3.13.11.2
  Uname: Linux 3.13.0-30-generic x86_64
  AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
  ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
  Architecture: amd64
  AudioDevicesInUse:
   USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
   /dev/snd/controlC0:  kaymes     2516 F.... pulseaudio
  BuildID: 20140721092545
  Channel: Unavailable
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Wed Jul 23 10:37:17 2014
  ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird
  ForcedLayersAccel: False
  IfupdownConfig:
   # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
   auto lo
   iface lo inet loopback
  IncompatibleExtensions:
   Lightning - {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}
   English (GB) Language Pack - langpack-en-GB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   Deutsch (DE) Language Pack - langpack-de@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   Thunderbird (default) - {972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-07-02 (20 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
  IpRoute:
   default via 10.33.0.1 dev eth0  proto static 
   10.33.0.0/22 dev eth0  proto kernel  scope link  src 10.33.1.197  metric 1
  IwConfig:
   eth0      no wireless extensions.
   
   lo        no wireless extensions.
  LocalLibraries: /home/kaymes/.thunderbird/dymzcbig.default/extensions/{e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}/components/Linux_x86_64-gcc3/libcalbasecomps.so
  PrefSources:
   prefs.js
   [Profile]/extensions/{e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}/defaults/preferences/lightning.js
  Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=31.0/20140721092545 (In use)
  RelatedPackageVersions:
   rhythmbox-mozilla 3.0.2-0ubuntu2
   totem-mozilla     3.10.1-1ubuntu4
  RfKill:
   
  RunningIncompatibleAddons: True
  SourcePackage: thunderbird
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  WifiSyslog:
   Jul 23 08:56:13 uqbox kernel: [427030.548782] [drm] Setting output timings on SDVOB failed
   Jul 23 09:37:38 uqbox kernel: [429515.541016] [drm] Setting output timings on SDVOB failed
   Jul 23 10:06:02 uqbox kernel: [431219.445267] [drm] Setting output timings on SDVOB failed
   Jul 23 10:07:12 uqbox kernel: [431289.957320] [drm] Setting output timings on SDVOB failed
   Jul 23 10:23:06 uqbox kernel: [432243.381132] MATLAB[25882]: segfault at 8 ip 00007f2f4507bcfe sp 00007f2f06cc5320 error 4
  dmi.bios.date: 10/27/2011
  dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.bios.version: A13
  dmi.board.name: 0J468K
  dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.board.version: A00
  dmi.chassis.type: 3
  dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA13:bd10/27/2011:svnDellInc.:pnOptiPlex960:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0J468K:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct3:cvr:
  dmi.product.name: OptiPlex 960
  dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

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