More preference window tweaks landed on trunk

[ehume]

So, are the options in Options for your mother who will not want to open such a window, or are the options in Options for the intermediate user who would like to change things, but is not yet up to messing with about:config or user.js - yet?

[BenBasson]

If someone's changing the cache size and they know what they're doing, they're easily up to using about:config. It's a technical pref, not a normal user pref.

I still don't see what the use-case is for changing the pref in the first place. If the cache can perform better, let's find out how and change the default.

[wgianopoulos]

I asked my mother ...

Well, for the "For your mother" case, I think we should possibly have an option not to display the Advanced options at all.

[BenBasson]

An option to not display options? I really, really hope you're joking. The way to not display options is to about:config them. End of story.

[loadbang]

Or an option for advanced users so they can activate the advanced UI via about:config.

We do need a purge button at least. First, it can resolve problems, second let's say I have been to a web site and I want to hide my traces, for example, credit card details, you could use clear private data, or via the prefs UI. It's not hard to read the cache files firefox has created. Clearing cache via Clear Private Data takes 10 clicks of the mouse if you go via history in the menu bar, that is obsessive.

Perhaps we should also enable config ia bash if we aiming at advanced users.

[wgianopoulos]

The line under System Defaults on the "Main" pane is still cut off. There is plenty of blank space so it does not look like a window size issue.

[Thumper]

Well, for the "For your mother" case, I think we should possibly have an option not to display the Advanced options at all.

Advanced is just a pit full of options which shouldn't exist. It should be removed entirely. It boggles the mind that there is actually a pref to enable autoscroll (the unix argument being completely ridiculous). Languages should be in Content. The JS options should be removed and defaulted sensibly (including disabling all chrome hiding by default). The Feeds tab and the the phishing protection should be removed, because they're just Netscape-itis.

- Chris

[Waldo]

I would really like to see the return of the ability to clear the cache. A "Clear Now" button next to where the cache size is configured on the Advanced -> Network tab. I currently have the clear private data function set up to clear the cache only to get by without this. Web developers really need to be able to clear the entire cache at once to debug issues as well as to time applications starting from an empty cache.

The intent is that a Clear Now... button is there for clearing things quickly and easily.

[Waldo]

is this ?

I don't think so; the UI I meant was the UI in the preferences window (but the Subscribe dialog from a feed preview might be slightly broken, as well).

[Waldo]

I don't understand why the safe browsing options exist in such an explicit way. Surely the provider of the list is completely irrelevant when stored locally and all (if more than one) should be used if safebrowsing is enabled. Checking online may actually require a choice, but again, I don't see how the user is in a position to make one. How do I know if Google's anti-phishing list is better than one provided by Yahoo or Microsoft?

The anti-phishing UI is not yet complete; there's another update coming soon which will make it a bit better.

For feeds, it'd be lovely if the icon used is a big orange RSS icon.

I'm not the icon-master. Someone else will be following up on that eventually...

[Waldo]

The two radio box choices for "New pages" don't seem to fit in. If there's only two choices, it could be a checkbox.

There's a rationale for not doing that in either bug 340677 or in mozilla.dev.apps.firefox by beltzner; essentially, checkboxes are meant for boolean settings, not either-or settings.

As mentioned already, I also don't see the reason why someone would configure the "Warning messages" section. Users just click OK on the dialog when entering a secure site, and I don't see much use in putting any of the prompts back on if they're off already.

I agree to an extent; the issue is that if the user accidentally turns it off in UI, there's no easy way to undo that choice.

I agree with what has been said above about taking off the cache option. Is it really needed that people can configure their cache size? I don't see why people would disable SSL 3 or TLS either.

On cache size, that's why it's in Advanced. As for the secure site options, I think it's partially parity with other browsers which do allow these things to be enabled, but I'm not familiar with the rationale.

[hhh]

I'm not the icon-master. Someone else will be following up on that eventually...

?...

[Waldo]

This looks good to me, other than the bottom of the border for warning messages is cut off. Is this a known issue?

Vaguely; I've heard persistent rumors about this problem in various places, although I'm not seeing it on Linux. Could you file a bug, make it block bug 340677, and assign it to jwalden (plus sign) bmo (at) mit (dot) edu so I don't forget it?

Why do some pages have borders and other's don't? I know that some are very specific, but I wonder if it would look better to have borders on all pages?

This is still vaguely up in the air, but I think we're going to be going with what we have now. This could easily change, tho.

I've been opening and closing the options panel (using cancel) and it's crashed Minefield a couple times. Talkback never launched so I don't have an ID's to give you.

Hmm, not sure what to say here. I suspect that's a trunk issue that's not going to matter for 2.0.

[BenBasson]

The anti-phishing UI is not yet complete; there's another update coming soon which will make it a bit better.

Sounds good to me. It might be an idea to have a chat with Beltzner, I recently mailed him with my concerns and I think he'll have something to add.

[Waldo]

Advanced is just a pit full of options which shouldn't exist.

Most of the options there actually are useful in some circumstances, but they're not useful in general circumstances, so they're "hidden away", but less so than about:config. In particular, the encryption options are requirements in a small number of circumstances but useless in most others, and about:config is just too little UI for the times when the prefs actually have to be changed.

It boggles the mind that there is actually a pref to enable autoscroll (the unix argument being completely ridiculous).

Agreed, but I'm not the primary person designing this (rather the primary person implementing it).

Languages should be in Content.

Languages is a set-and-forget option, and since most people will be downloading localized builds with that setting done correctly already, keeping it that visible isn't optimal use of prefwindow space.

The Feeds tab and the the phishing protection should be removed, because they're just Netscape-itis.

Incorrect. Feeds is a result of being crunched for space in the window, and the phishing stuff (some of which is going away soon -- there are various political issues surrounding this that have blocked updating the UI :-\ ) is useful because very few people actually look at browser UI to notice warning signals. It's still a little crufty, admittedly, but it's going to get better.