Add new option to customize blank new tab HTML/CSS

[Delgan]

Hi there!

This is a proposal to fix #980, allowing Vimium users to customize the look of pages/blank.html for new tabs.

It adds a new option to the settings:

This makes it possible to create elegant new tab pages (source):

The great thing is that is supports Vimium keybinds as well:

I attached the "custom HTML/CSS" I used if one wants to try it out: startpage.txt

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The main advantage of this solution compared to using another extension is that it maintains the browser's focus on page content. This avoids the need for cumbersome workarounds such as closing and reopening the new tab to remove focus from the address bar, which creates visual disturbances.

I believe the changes are minimal yet can significantly enhances the user experience. What do you think?

[gdh1995]

There're some annoying browser-level limits on this feature:

1. an extension page can not load 3rd-party <script> and <style> resources from non-whitelisted websites

• 1. no any dynamic things - as a result, the outlook of this feature is very limited

2. There's a strict size limit on browser-synced web-extension configuration storage: only 100KB in total

• 1. this means your custom HTML can not be very long, and it will "eat" usable storage space for other options like custom key mappings and search engines
• 2. if an item is longer than about 10KB, a web-extension will have to do some tricks to save it into the synced storage; although Vimium C does have such a feature, it's not well-tested and then I'm not sure whether you can use it or not...

[gdh1995]

The main advantage of this solution compared to using another extension is that it maintains the browser's focus on page content. This avoids the need for cumbersome workarounds such as closing and reopening the new tab to remove focus from the address bar, which creates visual disturbances.

As for this, let's continue the discussion in #980 (comment)

[Delgan]

I agree with all you said. It was a poor man's solution, for lack of a better one available in Firefox.

However as discussed in #980, there are better alternatives, such as running a local server or customizing Firefox's AutoConfig.

I therefore close this unnecessary PR. 👍