98.css

Edit: After reflecting on this situation, your creation, your art: the css library paired with your story gave me a modern day Norman Rockwell dopamine hit. This has been an absolute experience, bravo to the collaboration!

> Tabs should be managed by adding custom javascript code. All you need is to add the [aria-selected=true] attribute to the active tab.

It took me way too long to realise those widgets that show stats quickly counting up are only there hoping you'll wait until they finish counting to see the total number. All to increase your time on the page and make the metrics look good for the designer.

I don't think that more-tabs-that-can-fit-on-one-"line" is ideal, but I think the modern equivalent - horizontal scolling tabs - is waaay friggin' worse. I've been confused by those before whereas the first time I encountered multi-row tabs in the "depth style," I had zero confusion about what I was looking at.

The moving tabs issue we can fix but just not moving them.

And the vertical space issue is much less of an issue now than it was then because we have higher resolutions but the answer to that is to start closing tabs when you can no longer see your content. It's like a quiet little nag that says you have too much stuff open.

https://nielssp.github.io/classic-stylesheets/

Plus the icons thing - they're not as easy as people might think.

But this xfce-winxp-tc seems to be really, really close to the original. In those first two screenshots I thought it was just screenshots of the original WinXP.

Also the CSS framework subject of this thread looks really identical to the widgets and stuff of Win98.

But if you want true 100% pixel-perfect windows 98/xp/whatever... Just use them.

> Remove the control when there is no way for users to enable it

That guidance is unhinged, and is exactly the anti-pattern that upthread points to that needs to die.

Removing the control is like gaslighting the user: they're looking for "how to do X?" and documentation, Internet searchable screenshots, and, god help us, now AI, are pointing them at a button that does not exist. I cannot tell you how many times I've frustratingly circled that mulberry bush as a user, for a wide range of products.

No, the button (and all other UI elements) should always present/be visible, and if there is a disabled control, there should be a HIG-standardized way to determine why it is disabled. (I.e., a mandatory tool-tip that states what actions would cause the control to enable, though I'd accept that tool-tips themselves are not always discoverable. You could have a small, standardized icon on the disabled control, like an :information-symbol-emoji: that might hit towards the tool-tip, or just put in underneath.)

I wish every button or menu option that has a shortcut would show me its shortcut on hover or in-place so I didn't have to find it in the manual or buried in the settings menu.

I truly hate fast-food kiosks for this reason: most expect me to be familiar with their offerings and the menu system of that kios. I relatively rarely visit such places and I was better off with a human asking me 1-3 short questions and paying. I'm not paid to know this shit, I'm the customer. Guess I'm just too old, younger people love this crap for some reason.

Multirow tab ai't pretty, but it allows you to know all your tabs -- unlike the modern scrollable tab bar that move one pixel on each click.

I guess this depends on you are using mouse clicks or have a touch screen you can swipe