4 ms·

But then please for the love of god make about:config something that can be used without trawling mozilla.org discussion threads or random about.com 'articles'.

by cfinke 14y ago

But then please for the love of god make about:config something that can be used without trawling mozilla.org discussion threads or random about.com 'articles'. I think one of the reasons that about:config is not easy to use is because it shouldn't be easy to use. If it was a nice window with checkboxes and dropdowns and tabs for groups of related options, then it would become a de facto settings dialog a thousand times more problematic than the legitimate settings dialog.

protomyth 14y ago
making it hard to use doesn't really stop people from using it[1], it just means they will use it badly 1) search Google about something, read blog, follow instructions is an amazing pattern people have learned and apply regardless of wisdom or skill
lucian1900 14y ago
If options are removed from the preferences panels, something easier to use than about:config should exist, or about:config should become less useless.
nitrogen 14y ago
When did warnings indicating that "this option will destroy your computer if set carelessly" become verboten? Why waste the expensive time of advanced users for no real benefit to the masses?
- czr80 14y ago
  What a fascinating comment: "expensive time of advanced users"? As if knowing what, say, SSL 3.0 means is somehow a marker of a more valuable person, more worthy of not having their time wasted. It might be good for you to remember that those "masses" are just people with other things to do with their lives - they're doctors, lawyers, concert violinists, nuclear physicists, biologists, teachers, ... and they just want their damned browser to work without having to mess around, and preferably not break with cryptic error messages they don't care about, because, frankly, they have better things to do.
  - nitrogen 14y ago
    Advanced users are the only ones who will be "mess[ing] around" in the advanced settings dialogs. Sane defaults and easy-to-customize advanced options are not mutually exclusive.
  - singleuse 14y ago
    I think you missed the point here, doctor, lawyers and otherwise supposedly busy non-advanced users will not delve in about:config at all, hence cannot waste any of their time there. It's only the advanced users who are willing go through this path because they want to tweak a settings. And the question would be, is it really worth making such an impractical tool out of about:config and thus wasting time of advanced users when it was designed for their own use, for the sake of keeping non-advanced users out this setting panel.

by cfinke 14y ago

protomyth 14y ago

making it hard to use doesn't really stop people from using it[1], it just means they will use it badly 1) search Google about something, read blog, follow instructions is an amazing pattern people have learned and apply regardless of wisdom or skill

lucian1900 14y ago

If options are removed from the preferences panels, something easier to use than about:config should exist, or about:config should become less useless.

nitrogen 14y ago

When did warnings indicating that "this option will destroy your computer if set carelessly" become verboten? Why waste the expensive time of advanced users for no real benefit to the masses?

czr80 14y ago
What a fascinating comment: "expensive time of advanced users"? As if knowing what, say, SSL 3.0 means is somehow a marker of a more valuable person, more worthy of not having their time wasted. It might be good for you to remember that those "masses" are just people with other things to do with their lives - they're doctors, lawyers, concert violinists, nuclear physicists, biologists, teachers, ... and they just want their damned browser to work without having to mess around, and preferably not break with cryptic error messages they don't care about, because, frankly, they have better things to do.
- nitrogen 14y ago
  Advanced users are the only ones who will be "mess[ing] around" in the advanced settings dialogs. Sane defaults and easy-to-customize advanced options are not mutually exclusive.
- singleuse 14y ago
  I think you missed the point here, doctor, lawyers and otherwise supposedly busy non-advanced users will not delve in about:config at all, hence cannot waste any of their time there. It's only the advanced users who are willing go through this path because they want to tweak a settings. And the question would be, is it really worth making such an impractical tool out of about:config and thus wasting time of advanced users when it was designed for their own use, for the sake of keeping non-advanced users out this setting panel.