WIP: Migrate Wiki content over to src/docs

docs/browser_view_resizer.md

+# Browser View Resizer
+
+To fix bug [458](http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=458), which
+identifies that it is hard to hit the thin window frame corner to resize the
+window. It would be better to have a resize hit area (called widget from now on)
+in the corner, as we currently have for edit boxes for example.
+
+[TOC]
+
+## Background
+
+This is specific to the Windows OS. On the Mac, Cocoa automatically adds a
+resize widget (Not sure about Linux, we should double check). On Windows, those
+resize widgets are at the extreme right of a status bar. For example, if you
+remove the status bar from a Windows Explorer window, you lose the resize
+widget. But since Chrome never ever has a status bar and simply take over the
+bottom of the window for specific tasks (like the download shelf for example),
+we need to find a creative way of giving access to a resize widget.
+
+The bottom corners where we would like to add the resize widget are currently
+controlled by the browser view, which can have either the tab contents view or
+other dynamic views (like the download shelf view) displayed in this area.
+
+## Requirements
+
+Since there is no status bar to simply fix a resize widget to, we must
+dynamically create a widget that can be laid either on the tab contents view or
+on other views that might temporarily take over the bottom part of the browser
+view.
+
+When no dynamic view is taking over the bottom of the browser view, the resize
+widget can sit in the bottom right corner of the tab contents view, over the tab
+contents view.
+
+![Resize Corner](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_2OD0ww7UZAs/SUAaNi6TWYI/AAAAAAAAGmI/89jCYQ1Cxsw/ResizeCorner-2.png)
+
+The resize widget must have the same width and height as
+the scroll bars so that it can fit in the corner currently left empty when both
+scroll bars are visible. If only one scroll bar is visible (either the
+horizontal or the vertical one), that scroll bar must still leave room for the
+resize widget to fit there (as it currently leave room for the empty corner when
+both scroll bars are visible), yet, only when the resize widget is laid on top
+of the tab contents view, not when a dynamic shelf is added at the bottom of the
+browser view.
+
+![Resize Corner](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_2OD0ww7UZAs/SUAaNjqr_iI/AAAAAAAAGmA/56hzjdnkVRI/ResizeCorner-1.png)
+![Resize Corner](http://lh3.ggpht.com/_2OD0ww7UZAs/SUAaN_wDEUI/AAAAAAAAGmQ/7B4CTZTXOmk/ResizeCorner-3.png)
+![Resize Corner](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_2OD0ww7UZAs/SUAaN7yme9I/AAAAAAAAGmY/EaniiAbwi-Q/ResizeCorner-4.png)
+
+If another view (e.g.,  again, the download shelf) is added at the bottom of the
+browser view, below the tab contents view, and covers the bottom corners, then
+the resize widget must be laid on top of this other child view. Of course, all
+child views that can potentially be added at the bottom of the browser view,
+must be designed in a way that leaves enough room in the bottom corners for the
+resize widget.
+
+![Resize Corner](http://lh3.ggpht.com/_2OD0ww7UZAs/SUAaN17TIrI/AAAAAAAAGmg/6bljNQ_vZkI/ResizeCorner-5.png)
+![Resize Corner](http://lh4.ggpht.com/_2OD0ww7UZAs/SUAaWINHA6I/AAAAAAAAGmo/-VG5FGC8Xds/ResizeCorner-6.png)
+![Resize Corner](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_2OD0ww7UZAs/SUAaWDUpo0I/AAAAAAAAGmw/8USPzoMpgu0/ResizeCorner-7.png)
+
+Since the bottom corners might have different colors, based on the state and
+content of the browser view, the resize widget must have a transparent
+background.
+
+The resize widget is not animated itself. It might move with the animation of
+the view it is laid on top of (e.g., when the download shelf is being animated
+in), but we won't attempt to animate the resize widget itself (or fix it in the
+bottom right corner of the browser view while the other views get animated it).
+
+## Design
+
+Unfortunately, we must deal with the two different cases (with or without a
+dynamic bottom view) in two different and distinct ways.
+
+### Over a Dynamic View
+
+For the cases where there is a dynamic view at the bottom of the browser view, a
+new view class (named `BrowserResizerView`) inheriting from
+[views::View](http://src.chromium.org/svn/trunk/src/chrome/views/view.h) is used
+to display the resize widget. It is set as a child of the dynamic view laid at
+the bottom of the browser view. The Browser view takes care of properly setting
+the bounds of the resize widget view, based on the language direction.
+
+Also, it is easier and more efficient to let the browser view handle the mouse
+interactions to resize the browser. We can let Windows take care of properly
+resizing the view by returning the HTBOTTOMLEFT or HTBOTTOMRIGHT flags from the
+NCClientHitTest windows message handler when they occur over the resize widget.
+The browser view also takes care of changing the mouse cursor to the appropriate
+resizing arrows when the mouse hovers over the resize widget area.
+
+### Without a Dynamic View
+
+To make sure that the scroll bars (handled by `WebKit`) are not drawn on top of
+the resizer widget (or vice versa), we need to properly implement the callback
+specifyinhg the rectangle covered by the resizer. This callback is implemented
+on the `RenderWidget` class that can delegate to a derive class via a new
+virtual method which returns an empty rect on the base class. Via a series of
+delegate interface calls, we eventually get back to the browser view which can
+return the size and position of the resize widget, but only if it is laid out on
+top of the tabs view, it returns an empty rect when there is a dynamic view.
+
+To handle the drawing of the resize widget over the render widget, we need to
+add code to the Windows specific version of the render widget host view which
+receives the bitmap rendered by WebKit so it can layer the transparent bitmap
+used for the resize widget. That same render widget host view must also handle
+the mouse interaction and use the same trick as the browser view to let Windows
+take care of resizing the whole frame. It must also take care of changing the
+mouse cursor to the appropriate resizing arrows when the mouse hovers over the
+resize widget area.
+
+## Implementation
+
+You can find the changes made to make this work in patch
+[16488](http://codereview.chromium.org/16488).
+
+## Alternatives Considered
+
+We could have tried to reuse the code that currently takes care of resizing the
+edit boxes within WebKit, but this code is wired to the overflow style of HTML
+element and would have been hard to rewire in an elegant way to be used in a
+higher level object like the browser view. Unless we missed something.
+
+We might also decide to go with the easier solution of only showing the resize
+corner within the tab contents view. In that case, it would still be recommended
+that the resize widget would not appear when dynamic views are taking over the
+bottom portion of the browser view, since it would look weird to have a resize
+corner widget that is not in the real... corner... of the browser view ;-)
+
+We may decide that we don't want to see the resize widget bitmap hide some
+pixels from the tab contents (or dynamic view) yet we would still have the
+resizing functionality via the mouse interaction and also get visual feedback
+with the mouse cursor changes while we hover over the resize widget area.
+
+We may do more research to find a way to solve this problem in a single place as
+opposed to the current dual solution, but none was found so far.