on browser tabs.
© 2012 Jan Zulawski <fdd@altair.pw>

There was a time when I used to use Chromium (in fact, I was extremely enthusiastic about the whole chromium project, even since the day the sources were released) precisely for its great solution on dealing w/ bookmarks. Lots of bookmarks, I mean. It was the first browser project to actually have a solid, fast and pretty convenient way of saving, managing and providing a method of getting access to your bookmarks on remote machines. The only "drawback" was that you were required to install and use Chromium on all your devices. You see, the really cool feature that actually convinced me that using Chromium really pays off was the fact that along w/ the URL, it also stored a neat base64 representation of the favicon (data:image/bmp;base64). This was a super-nice feature that made Bookmark Sync an addictive service, at least for me. Of course, nowadays Firefox does the same thing (ICON="data:image/bmp;base64, [...]", in `bookmarks.html'), and it syncs all sort of data. We live in a modern world.

The structure of `sessionstore.js' looks something like this (some js obj): 

{"unixen":[
	{"tabs":[
		{"entries":[
			{"url":"<page url>",
				"title":"<string>",
				"ID":<10-digit number>,
				"docshellID":<3-digit number>,
				"referrer":"<referrer url>"
				"scroll":"<column number>,<row number>",
				"docIdentifier":<doc number>
			}],
			"index":<index number>,
			"hidden":<true/false>,
			"attributes":{"image":"favicon url"},
			"extData":{"weaveLastUsed":<unix time>}
		},

		/* entries all the way down. */
	]}
]}
/* see my neat indenting savagely ruined by the formatting system. */

When a tab is being restored, during the session restore process the tab's persistent XUL attributes are restored and along w/ it also its favicon ("image":"favicon url"), then the SSTabRestoring event is sent. Now, if `browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand' is set, the process is broken as the tab loads the corresponding URL only when highlighted. After the loading is finished, the scroll state and various other fields are restored, then finally SSTabRestored is sent.

Mișu is correct, Midori simply does not load those pages corresponding to the tabs saved in the current session, as opposed to how browsers derived from the Mozilla project suite react.

Since something like September 2010, Firefox used to have the integer var `browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs', which, if set to "0", was kinda equivalent to using the BarTab addon [i], later enabled in Firefox via the "Don't load tabs until selected" checkbox, under General Options.

In the meantime (i.e., since Firefox 8), Firefox has replaced `browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs' w/ the boolean `browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand', which is also toggled by the "Don't load tabs until selected" UI checkbox, under Tabs Options (this also affected the "Number of concurrently restored tabs" option in Session Restore).

For SeaMonkey, it's the `browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs' integer variable, which can be set to "0" to achieve the same thing.


In the past years, I think I've used each and every browser there is, but it seems I kinda settled w/ Firefox after all, partly due to its ubiquitousness, partly because it's a modern, all-in-one project kinda thing, even though when it comes to devouring my resources it's pretty merciless. But then again, we live in Modern Times (sic).


Just like Alin, my computers are not meant to be powered off, and I think I abuse of browser tabs from the same reasons you guys mentioned, using them both as bookmarks and many-months-spanning to-do items or eternally postponed to-be-read pages/articles.


Oh, and a few weeks back I solely decided that 1300+ tabs (in a constant, horrifying growth) is a bit too much. I said a fresh start is more than welcome for the good of both my sanity and my system's scaling capabilities (god, I love abusing of this idiom), so I did what every normal person would do, facing such a terrifying ordeal (my old sessionstore.js was 2,353 KB!). I ran `% firefox -p' and created a new profile. That happened in Nov 27, and now I look in the upper right corner of my Firefox window and I see the tab count figure reading "525".

I'm starting to believe I'm a bit past the "Symptoms of ADHD" state.


TL;DR: SURGEON GENERALS WARNING: PROLONGED ABUSE OF BROWSER TABS CAN CAUSE BIRTH COMPLICATIONS, BRAIN TUMORS, AND MAY CAUSE DEATH.


[i] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bartab/


-- Dec 31, 2012. ⌘

tonight
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