[APBeta] New tab panel concept

[Paul Rodman]

Tab panels on Windows suffer from several drawbacks:

a. They can be somewhat "difficult to spot", since the tabs are relatively small and non-obvious, especially in a large and complex window.
b. The tab panels themselves are displayed with a white (or light background) that doesn't play nicely with the AstroPlanner night vision mode.
c. They look completely different from the Mac OS tab panel, which is more obvious, has centred tabs and a blue highlight.
d. The tabs themselves are plain text only. No icons or close widgets can be added.

I'm toying (just toying, mind you) with the concept of changing tab panels to a new design, and would like some feedback. Here's the initial take, with the existing tab panel design on top and the new one (first cut) at the bottom:

Mac OS X:

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Windows:

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Windows in night vision mode:

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Note that this is the first cut. The tab headings themselves will be night-vision compliant in the final version, and the tab panel will probably have rounded corners, shadow effect, etc.

This will require some work for me, and will make the app a bit more difficult to maintain, but is doable. The other option is just to live with the native controls.

Paul R.