Context menu scrolling arrows (an endless problem of CR2023)

[firegold763]

System Details

• OS: Windows 10
• Thorium Version: 126.0.6478.231

Problem
The good old scaling/context menu problem that Chrome has since they released CR2023, in laptop 1080p/125% scaling it's unusable since it's too big and arrows for scrolling came up.

Screenshots

Additional Notes
I expected this to happen hoping that maybe with Thorium it could be different, maybe trying to mantain the old UI, instead no it seems that nothing could be done unless Google themselves do something but apparently they don't since it's MONTHS that is like this.

[People-11]

I will stay at M124. The dev seems don't have the ability to really touch the code. Just adjusting compile flags, merging upstreams, mitigating patches, that's all.

Maybe they have the ability, but they really don't care. You have this bug at M126, and I have a bug that always shows a new icon in context menu. They might found the problems in testing but don't care to fix them.

They just close issues about performance because Chrome started using Maglev compiler so Thorium's performance lead over feature was no longer obvious. They also ignored all the "Hide tab search button" issues and provide a position flag without hiding option. They just said "Refresh 2023 is the default UI" because it's Google completed removed old UI and they didn't do any. They just refuse to implement simple features, for their own reasons, and haven't considered making them an option to really make us feel good about using it.

Some might say "don't talk, just fork yourself, and we will appreciate your PR". So why do Bug Report, Feature Request and General Feedback exist? "We want your ideas and findings but we won't make them come true"?

[firegold763]

I will stay at M124. The dev seems don't have the ability to really touch the code. Just adjusting compile flags, merging upstreams, mitigating patches, that's all.

Maybe they have the ability, but they really don't care. You have this bug at M126, and I have a bug that always shows a new icon in context menu. They might found the problems in testing but don't care to fix them.

They just close issues about performance because Chrome started using Maglev compiler so Thorium's performance lead over feature was no longer obvious. They also ignored all the "Hide tab search button" issues and provide a position flag without hiding option. They just said "Refresh 2023 is the default UI" because it's Google completed removed old UI and they didn't do any. They just refuse to implement simple features, for their own reasons, and haven't considered making them an option to really make us feel good about using it.

Some might say "don't talk, just fork yourself, and we will appreciate your PR". So why do Bug Report, Feature Request and General Feedback exist? "We want your ideas and findings but we won't make them come true"?

Yeah honestly I agree, the dev always said he hated the new UI and would have done all he could to try and maintain it, yet instead we are here with the new flawed UI that Google made only for 4K desktop screens with 100% scaling.

At this point there's no difference at using basic Chrome or Thorium, maybe just Manifest V2? But that's all.

[Alex313031]

@firegold763 @People-11 Already working on fixing the ugly Cr23 UI.

It restores the tab height, tab separators, and menus are square instead of round.
More work in progress now to put it all properly behind a flag.

I can also try to make it decrease the padding in menus to the way it was before.

See commit here > 07bd646

Thorium normally would have had the new ugly UI in M122. I staved it off for as long as possible by disabling internal flags for the 2023 UI. But now they are removing the code since M125, so I'm having to come up with my own solution.

Modifying the UI isn't the easiest thing, mainly just because of trying to find where in the code is what you are trying to modify. Once I found those lines for example, that have static integers for pixel spacing on certain UI elements, I could make it where the values are what they were in the pre-2023 UI, and put that behind a flag.
And I have the "ability to touch the code", I'm just not very good but competent enough to do it after lots of trial and error. Sometimes I decide not to add something even though it was asked in the community (even multiple times).

Also @gz83 these comments didn't need to be hidden. While they were critical I don't think it was something worth hiding.

[firegold763]

@firegold763 @People-11 Already working on fixing the ugly Cr23 UI.

It restores the tab height, tab separators, and menus are square instead of round. More work in progress now to put it all properly behind a flag.

I can also try to make it decrease the padding in menus to the way it was before.

See commit here > 07bd646

Thorium normally would have had the new ugly UI in M122. I staved it off for as long as possible by disabling internal flags for the 2023 UI. But now they are removing the code since M125, so I'm having to come up with my own solution.

Modifying the UI isn't the easiest thing, mainly just because of trying to find where in the code is what you are trying to modify. Once I found those lines for example, that have static integers for pixel spacing on certain UI elements, I could make it where the values are what they were in the pre-2023 UI, and put that behind a flag. And I have the "ability to touch the code", I'm just not very good but competent enough to do it after lots of trial and error. Sometimes I decide not to add something even though it was asked in the community (even multiple times).

Also @gz83 these comments didn't need to be hidden. While they were critical I don't think it was something worth hiding.

It's more Google's fault clearly, they had tons and tons of criticism, tons of people that called them out for the scrolling menu problem, because they didn't think about screens that either ain't 4K or either don't have 100% scaling but a higher one. It's since October 2023 that the problem surfaced, but they did absolutely nothing, that's why I've always downgraded and changed browsers here and there. I've seen Brave fixed it by heavily modifying the menus, reducing the padding, and stuff like that.

But god they just fucked up everything on laptops or lower res screens, it's so annoying.

[Zelassin]

thank you for at least trying to fix the ui. If it's ultimately impossible to do so, how bad for safety is it to just stay on the 124 version of the browser?

[Amanoki]

Opening feedbacks only means that devs may possibly consider those opinions and ideas and implement them when they feel like it and are able to. Devs are not obligated to satisfy anyone's requests. It's understandable even if devs not doing them for whatever reason and consideration.

Leaving the comment as I share OP's wish for the old UI to be brought back, glad to know it's in progress. Personally the spacing in the menus is the most crucial, it's the direct cause of Chrome becoming unusable for me anymore, would love to see it to get addressed eventually. Regardless, just do what you can and take your time. I appreciate all the hard work Alex and the contributors have put into Thorium.

[firegold763]

Opening feedbacks only means that devs may possibly consider those opinions and ideas and implement them when they feel like it and are able to. Devs are not obligated to satisfy anyone's requests. It's understandable even if devs not doing them for whatever reason and consideration.

Leaving the comment as I share OP's wish for the old UI to be brought back, glad to know it's in progress. Personally the spacing in the menus is the most crucial, it's the direct cause of Chrome becoming unusable for me anymore, would love to see it to get addressed eventually. Regardless, just do what you can and take your time. I appreciate all the hard work Alex and the contributors have put into Thorium.

I agree, but this is literally a bug. It's not a feature request or not even an opinion or suggestion.

[Amanoki]

I agree, but this is literally a bug. It's not a feature request or not even an opinion or suggestion.

CR2023 and the scrolling context menus were brought in by Chrome as a feature on purpose as you already know, you could probably call it bug to Google and tell them to fix it.
(Edited: it's indeed an issue finally acknowledged by Google just days ago, there's still hope for Google to fix it)
For Thorium this actually requires extra new work to rebuild the UI to satisfy users' preferences for the old UI or the need for compact menus, which is essentially a feature request.

[firegold763]

I agree, but this is literally a bug. It's not a feature request or not even an opinion or suggestion.

CR2023 and the scrolling context menus were brought in by Chrome as a feature on purpose as you already know, you could probably call it bug to Google and tell them to fix it. (Edited: it's indeed an issue finally acknowledged by Google just days ago, there's still hope for Google to fix it) For Thorium this actually requires extra new work to rebuild the UI to satisfy users' preferences for the old UI or the need for compact menus, which is essentially a feature request.

At least it seems they're doing something, maybe it was a feature at first, but then it became an UI Regression (at least on 1080p/125% scaling screens) and then a consequentially a sort of bug. I just hope it gets fixed, since for the rest I don't even mind too much the new UI, but the context menus are annoying.

[xFiskx]

Chrome 129 has a new compact function built in

flag: Compact mode for the browser - Prototype

[firegold763]

Chrome 129 has a new compact function built in

flag: Compact mode for the browser - Prototype

It's not bad, but it doesn't resolve the context menus problem. They're still huge and sometimes appear with scrolling arrows, I hope that Google implements the compactness in the context menus too.

[Amanoki]

Compact mode doesn't seem to touch the menus. Another problem with the context menu besides padding is that its height is limited by the mouse click position, instead of utilizing the full height of the browser. Someone there seems to be working on the issue unfortunately no new news since August 1. https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/5547329

[WmeLuna]

my current workaround for my windows device, until thorium is relased with the fixes, is using Chrome UI Tweaks with thorium.exe on the custom inclusion list, not perfect but it means i can use 126 without the annoying context menu :P
though, this ofc does not apply to linux

[Alex313031]

@Amanoki @WmeLuna @Zelassin @firegold763 @People-11 @xFiskx New beta "Th24" release that fixes this and more > https://github.com/Alex313031/thorium/releases/tag/M126.0.6478.246

[firegold763]

@Amanoki @WmeLuna @Zelassin @firegold763 @People-11 @xFiskx New beta "Th24" release that fixes this and more > https://github.com/Alex313031/thorium/releases/tag/M126.0.6478.246

Thanks!

Appreciate your hard work, I'll wait for the Windows version to come out and try it out.

[Amanoki]

Same, can't wait for the Windows release! Thanks for the update!

[Alex313031]

@Amanoki @WmeLuna @Zelassin @firegold763 @People-11 @xFiskx Making a Window build now, which has even more fixes on top of the Linux build.

[firegold763]

@Amanoki @WmeLuna @Zelassin @firegold763 @People-11 @xFiskx Making a Window build now, which has even more fixes on top of the Linux build.

Good to know, looking forward to it

[Amanoki]

@Alex313031 I've been playing with Windows Beta Th24 for a while, a few things I've noticed so far:

1. This should be related to this issue so I'll put the details here. The context menu padding in Th24 seem still slightly larger than the old UI. On 124, my context menu items was able to fit exactly within my screen height, whereas on Th24 Beta, about 5~6 items become hidden under the scroll. It's not really a problem, however, as the difference is minor, so I am just mentioning this for your consideraction. It would be nice if the padding becomes a bit futher smaller (same as the old UI). The visual change wouldn't be noticeable comparing to the current value, but would allow more items to be displayed.

(White is 124, black is Th24)

2. When the browser is at a non-maximized (restored) state, the top edge of window becomes uninteractable, unable to resize the window by dragging it.
3. Unable to activate a tab by clicking on the top edge of tab. (Same as this)
4. Weird white line appears under the bookmark bar when custom themes installed. (Made a seperate issue here)

Nevertheless, I like Th24 very much! Most of the parts (that I care about) are very nicely restored to the previous experience. Guess I can finally move from 124 once the stable version comes out. Thank you for your impressing work!

[Eff0rtly]

@Alex313031 To be honest, you should look at the source code of this ui tweaks. You don't have to restore the old UI but should tweak it like this or brave. https://windhawk.net/mods/chrome-ui-tweaks

[Alex313031]

@Amanoki Added to my TODO to fix.

[Alex313031]

@People-11 @Amanoki @WmeLuna @Zelassin @Eff0rtly @firegold763 @xFiskx I am conglomerating this issue with Alex313031/Thorium-Win#248 and renaming the issue to "Thorium 2024 Discussion Issue"

PLEASE CONTINUE THIS DISCUSSION THERE > Alex313031/Thorium-Win#248