[Rejected] Future of "Collapse blocked elements" o
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:17 am
I recently (re-)discovered that "collapse blocked elements" is the default in Firefox 3. The browser will already do what Adblock Plus had to do "manually" so far, blocked elements will get the "display:none" style automatically. This means that I will be able to remove ugly and problematic code that does the collapsing in Adblock Plus right now. The new code won't work in Firefox 2 which means that I will do this change only once ~90% of the users switched to Firefox 3 (fortunately, AMO gives me that info now).
Now what should happen to the "collapse blocked elements" option? Browser's "display:none" can be overridden by the web page. So I see three alternatives right now:
1. "Collapse blocked elements" option stays and switches on "extra strong collapsing" - one that the web page cannot override. Disadvantages: flipping this option will not show any real effect, generally its usefulness will be very limited since websites have little reason to force blocked elements to occupy space.
2. Adblock Plus always makes sure that the web page cannot override "display:none" for blocked elements, without any options.
3. We just say that browser's default is good enough for us and Adblock Plus shouldn't do anything in addition.
Note that it won't be possible to target individual elements, so "only do the extra strong collapsing if the filter has a $collapse option" won't work.
I tend towards the third option since I don't see what a website would gain from overriding browser's default - other than preventing its layout from breaking, in which case we should let it override.
Opinions?
Now what should happen to the "collapse blocked elements" option? Browser's "display:none" can be overridden by the web page. So I see three alternatives right now:
1. "Collapse blocked elements" option stays and switches on "extra strong collapsing" - one that the web page cannot override. Disadvantages: flipping this option will not show any real effect, generally its usefulness will be very limited since websites have little reason to force blocked elements to occupy space.
2. Adblock Plus always makes sure that the web page cannot override "display:none" for blocked elements, without any options.
3. We just say that browser's default is good enough for us and Adblock Plus shouldn't do anything in addition.
Note that it won't be possible to target individual elements, so "only do the extra strong collapsing if the filter has a $collapse option" won't work.
I tend towards the third option since I don't see what a website would gain from overriding browser's default - other than preventing its layout from breaking, in which case we should let it override.
Opinions?