Comment 1 for bug 1198714

I was looking at some of the application development guidelines here:
http://design.ubuntu.com/apps/building-blocks/tabs

Why do we have tabs implemented twice?
I suspect that the poor implementation of tabs in the webbrowser is a byproduct of the restricitve Tab functionality mentioned above. We are implementing tabs twice because the more generic tab above is designed for a more static set of options, while the tabs used for the browser is more dynamic and can be added, removed, closed, etc.

I would expect that we consolidate these two types of tabs before we see any fragmentation at the application layer. The Tab "building block" should be made more flexible so that applications can add and remove tabs dynamically, while keeping some tabs as fixed (for example, an options tab). Also, we should make it easier to hide tabs (the "building block" variety of tab takes up too much screen real estate), and switch between tabs (which required two touches in the case of the browser).

Here is a proposal:
- The "building block tabs" should be hidden. They should be made visible using a bottom-up swipe. They should be switchable using the side to side motion we use for notifications.
- The "browser tabs" should either be eliminated and treated as multiple browser apps, or assuming the above suggestion is implemented, they should by added dynamically to the existing "building block tabs" where they will be hidden and switchable with a single touch (and various slides).