Improve sidebar hiding threshold on portrait screens

[phipsgabler]

I always use my browser (Firefox, cuttently 76.0.1) on a 1280 x 1024 screen in portrait mode, and the layout seems to automatically select the mobile version for that. Which is really inconvenient, since the navigation bar is automatically hid every time I click on an index entry, and you have to always click on the hamburger menu between switching subsubsections.

Also, it is not really indicated in any way that not hiding it is even possible -- I only today had the idea to try resizing the window.

Could you maybe restore a threshold closer to the one in the old layout, where the navigation bar always stayed (1055 px is just a tad too much for my screen)? Or at least give an option to "pin" the menu on desktop screens?

[anowacki]

My browser window is about 1000 px wide (regardless of the size of my screen), and I also find the new default behaviour unhelpful. At this size, with the side bar hidden, lines on the page are about 100–120 characters long, which I think is uncomfortably long for reading.

[mortenpi]

This is tangentially related to #1312. I agree that the width at which we go from desktop to mobile can probably be optimized. Maybe it would even be worth looking into a way to have some intermediate layout between them.

At this size, with the side bar hidden, lines on the page are about 100–120 characters long, which I think is uncomfortably long for reading.

While probably true for text (and this is also the reason why the main content has a maximum width, even if your browser window is very wide), there are cases where you actually want a wider page and 50-70 characters would almost certainly be too narrow as a default (images, code snippets etc). Related issue: #1168.

[phipsgabler]

As for readability, the old layout (without the collapsing menu) really was fine. And honestly, if you have a portrait screen (or tile your browser window in that way), you get used to some crappy layouts anyway. As long as navigation (scrolling or menus) aren't broken, narrow text is OK to live with, for me.

[anowacki]

there are cases where you actually want a wider page and 50-70 characters would almost certainly be too narrow as a default

Certainly no quibble from me on that point, though I think ideally the body text could be limited to a certain width whilst the code, figures, etc., could be wider, just as in physical publications. (But this is for #1168 really.)

Regardless, I do feel the sidebar disappears too soon with window width, as my main problem is that I like it to be there permanently with my current browser window size, and with that size, the other pane is certainly wide enough for me.