gconf and preferences (was: Galeon 1.3 comments (was: Re: Tab Open-ordering))

On Wed, 2003-04-02 at 03:36, Jonathan Koren wrote:
> On 27 Mar 2003, Tommi Komulainen wrote:
> 
> > And just so that you know, every gconf key is supposed to have
> > documentation attached to it, you can see it in gconf-editor. (This
> > seems to be pretty common misconception about gconf.)
> 
> Are you sure they're there?  Just because it's "supposed" to be there,
> doesn't mean it is.  Or even that the "documentation" for key "str1" isn't
> little more than "string 1" instead something more descriptive like
> "person to be notified of transmorgraphier errors".

For the most parts they are there, even translated for your pleasure
(thanks i18n team!)  For example (galeon.schemas.in):

(don't use this as an example for your own application, see gconf
documentation how it should've been done ;)

	<type>int</type>
        <default>0</default>
        <locale name="C">
        <short>New page type</short>
        <long>Type of page to show when opening a new window or tab. Possible
        values are: 0 (home page), 1 (last page), 2 (blank)</long>
	</locale>

Granted, some keys are lacking proper description and some existing ones
could use a better one.  But this just isn't a priority yet. 
Nevertheless, it's something that needs to be addressed before Galeon
can be released as stable.

Like someone has said, it'll happen faster if you help.  No programming
experience required. ;)


The application is expected to work even if gconf keys are corrupted. 
And for your specific example, there is no way any dialog can handle the
removal of the directory or replacement of the directory with a file
*after* it's been validated in the dialog and stored in gconf. 
Regardless of how the user has entered the preference, it needs to be
validated before it's used.  Nothing new here.


> Perhaps, but the new preference dialogs are empty.  Create an "advanced"
> button.

Perhaps.  But instead of just throwing in random preferences here and
there, we first need to figure out

0. if and how to implement missing features (contributes to step 1)
1. what preferences are there (some may still be removed, some added)
2. which ones should be shown in the preferences dialog (no, every
single option does *not* need to be there.  I know this is where we'll
probably get the next big flamewar...)
3. organize the preferences from 2) in a meaningful way
4. design the UI based on 3)


We're at step 0) at the moment.  Gathering the list of features and
preferences needs to be done before there's any chance of getting in to
2)  Again, it'll happen faster if you help ;)

We're getting there, but there's just so much the few of us can do. :-/


-- 
Tommi Komulainen                                 [email protected]
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