Comment by babuskov | Hacker News Reader

Comment by babuskov | Hacker News Reader

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- I cannot get 1920x1080 monitor on a laptop. It would defeat the purpose.

My problem is this:

http://backwardcompatible.net/images/gmail.png

* top posting is useless when you have long e-mail with 6-10 points to address in it. * being able to see 7 lines at a time is my real problem * the other real problem is when I have a 100-line email with 10 points to address in it and 10th point ends on line 34, I want to be able to easily cut the remaining 66 lines that come before the signature. I know that people using GMail won't see them anyway, but there are other people not using Google Mail and they will have to look through 66 lines to see if I replied to something else as well.

There is no way to simply select those 66 lines and cut them. If I press shift+end, it selects to the end of the line. If I press shift+PageDown it scrolls the GMail page in the browser down, and I also lose sight of the cursor. Selecting it with mouse is also not straightforward, because of some weird scrolling. The text entry box is simply too small. They shouldn't have tried to fix something that was working perfectly.

I understand Google engineers are not using Firefox and they are not replying to people who use products other than GMail and they have large screens. That is precisely why they lost sight of UX issues their users have. They believe everyone uses Google products only, and maybe they just don't care about those that don't, I really don't know.

- I don't want to have Undo Send. I don't want to wait when I send an e-mail. I don't have time for that.

- So, when you are searching for next flight, you should open GMail. I thought it should be used for e-mail, not search. ;)

- Firefox. Are you implying that I should only use Chrome and GMail is not usable from other browsers?

Your problem is that you have two lines of bookmarks all of the time? Your problem is that you don't auto-hide your taskbar? Your problem is that your version of Firefox shows a menu bar all the time for no reason? =)

Or is your problem that you've never clicked on the drop-down at the top left of your reply, and clicked, "Pop out reply"?

You probably just didn't know about that last one, which is understandable - it's a bit hidden. But I think it solves easily half of your complaint.

As to the editing quoted text, another HN'er responded adequately to that point.

Google engineers do use Firefox, and they do pay attention to people without large screens. Your assertions otherwise are baseless.

You don't wait for "Undo Send." The server politely waits a few seconds for you - you're free to do whatever you want.

I was just curious if you were using some ancient Internet Explorer.

Thanks for the tips...

As for my browser, it isn't 2 lines of bookmarks. It's one line of bookmarks and Web Developer Toolbar is the second line. As for the menu bar, and this is the way Linux version of Firefox works, although I would probably turn it on even if it was hidden because I use History, Tools and Bookmarks menus all the time (like 20+ times a day)

I don't want to auto-hide the taskbar, I like to see which applications are running all the time. Not all people use the computer the same way, and I surely wouldn't change my usage pattern of desktop environment just to please one web application.

"Pop out reply" and Shift+Ctrl+End help, and GMail is now usable. So thanks again. :)

BTW, I did try to pop out the message and then reply but, when it pops, it opens a 800x540 window which still has text box with 7 lines of text. Even if I maximize that window, the reply box is still 7 lines and I got half of screen filled with blank white space. I missed that there is a second way to pop it out. One could argue that even HN's default textarea is a better textbox than GMail's.

There's a feature in Gmail labs called "Quote Selected Text" that can be used to cut the remaining 66 lines

You can enable it through the Gmail settings > Labs > "Quote Selected Text", highlight the lines you want to respond to in your email and press the 'r' key to open a reply with only the highlighted part quoted.

http://email.about.com/od/gmailtips/qt/et_quote_select.htm

With high density displays these days, 1080p on a 13" laptop or other smaller laptops is possible

It might be possible, but sadly it's rarely been done at any reasonable screen quality. And it seems like an overkill to choose a laptop based on its resolution when you could just have the app not waste space instead.

The Chrome Pixel has a 12.85" display at 2560 x 1700.

We did chose laptops based on their resolutions. Otherwise, you'd still be using an 80x24 character display monitor.

Like this bad boy:

http://craphound.com/images/compaqmmex.jpg

Yes, and the Pixel and a handful of laptops from Asus and Samsung are the only 1080 px or higher small laptop options around. The mainstream has stagnated around 700-800 px for 12-13" for over a decade now, and when someone puts 900 vertical pixels in a sub-14" laptop it's still out of the ordinary. We did move up since the Portable in 1983, but we haven't advanced much past the X21 in 2001.

I don't think you understand how Undo Send works. You don't have to wait when you send an email, as soon as you click send you are free to do whatever else you want.

Shift-Ctrl-End.

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