[Geany-devel] various prefs warning

Nick Treleaven nick.treleaven at xxxxx
Thu Sep 15 14:48:31 UTC 2011


--- On Wed, 14/9/11, Colomban Wendling <lists.ban at herbesfolles.org> wrote:

> > Nick Treleaven <nick.treleaven at btopenworld.com>
> wrote:
> > 
> >> I think there should be a clear warning about
> changing the new
> >> various prefs - e.g. a user might enable
> use_safe_file_saving and
> >> then run into problems.
> > 
> > What are the problems with changing
> use_safe_file_saving? I don't see
> > how the previous value may affect anything.
> 
> As you say yourself below, it's a "dangerous" setting
> because it changes
> the way the file saving works, and actually "breaks" links,
> permissions,
> etc.  So yes, this one is a sensitive setting.

Yes, this is what I'm worried about - that people will think 'of course I want safe saving' and check it, then complain to us that geany is broken.

> >> I'll try to add a warning label and perhaps put
> the treeview in an
> >> expander, collapsed by default. We want to make it
> obvious that
> >> changing those settings should only be done if you
> know what you're
> >> doing.
> > 
> > Or maybe start the page with a warning and an "I'll be
> careful, I
> > promise?" check button, which shows the list? :)

Could do. I was thinking an expander is easier to implement ;-) Your idea might be better, like Firefox does.

> > The dangerous settings are gio_unsafe_save_backup,
> > use_gio_unsafe_file_saving and use_safe_file_saving,
> and IMHO their
> > names are quite indicative. Everything else is
> harmless
> 
> I'm puzzled between adding "annoyance" to the user and
> preventing her to
> touch sensitive settings without a good reason. 
> Actually some
> "harmless" settings as Dimitar called them may even be of
> some real
> interest to some users (the reason why we have that Various
> tab, heh),
> like allow_always_save, compiler_tab_autoscroll, etc.
> 
> So I agree that we should find a way to tell the user not
> to change
> something without having checked the manual (or be prepared
> no to come
> cry in our skirts), but I'm not sure we should really make
> it *hard* to
> change something like compiler_tab_autoscroll.

I agree, I like Dimitar's feature. I don't want to make it hard to use, just more obvious that the user should be careful.

> > except for indent_hard_tab_width to some extent. I
> believe it
> > shoudn't exist in the first place.
> 
> Agreed.  Actually it's a vestige from the past, AFAIK
> just kept for a
> better compatibility.  We even warn on the
> console/debug window it it
> isn't set to 8.
> We might want to remove it at some point, not sure when is
> the best time.

Yes, it could probably be removed sometime.



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