about:config -- why no hyperhelp
In endeavouring to persuade Seamonkey 2.2 to behave more as I would wish (and as earlier versions always did), I find that I am making far more use than normal of about:config What makes this so intensely frustrating is that there is no hyperhelp associated with the keys, and I have to launch a new browser session and use Google in order to find the meaning of the various keys and their values. Is there any obvious reason why the about:config interface cannot/does not support hyperlinks to the relevant documentation, rather than requiring the user to search for it in hyperspace ? Philip Taylor ___ support-seamonkey mailing list support-seamonkey@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
Re: about:config -- why no hyperhelp
On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 11:16:55 +0100, Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd) wrote: In endeavouring to persuade Seamonkey 2.2 to behave more as I would wish (and as earlier versions always did), I find that I am making far more use than normal of about:config What makes this so intensely frustrating is that there is no hyperhelp associated with the keys, and I have to launch a new browser session and use Google in order to find the meaning of the various keys and their values. Is there any obvious reason why the about:config interface cannot/does not support hyperlinks to the relevant documentation, rather than requiring the user to search for it in hyperspace ? Most obvious reason: SeaMonkey is a totally volunteer driven community project. There are no paid developers. To do this you would need. 1. Sufficient number of volunteers with the free time and skills to do this. 2. Get these volunteers to spend an indeterminate number of man hours researching and documenting each of several thousand preferences 3. Compile the information into an indexed and searchable format. 4. Write some code to the about:config screen to link each entry to the relevant documentation. . Alternatively find someone who has already done all that. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/whats-that-preference/ Phil -- Philip Chee phi...@aleytys.pc.my, philip.c...@gmail.com http://flashblock.mozdev.org/ http://xsidebar.mozdev.org Guard us from the she-wolf and the wolf, and guard us from the thief, oh Night, and so be good for us to pass. n ___ support-seamonkey mailing list support-seamonkey@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
Re: about:config -- why no hyperhelp
Philip Chee wrote: On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 11:16:55 +0100, Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd) wrote: Is there any obvious reason why the about:config interface cannot/does not support hyperlinks to the relevant documentation, rather than requiring the user to search for it in hyperspace ? Most obvious reason: SeaMonkey is a totally volunteer driven community project. There are no paid developers. I understand that, and I am very grateful to those volunteers for the finite-but-unbounded hours they have dedicated, and will dedicate, to the development of this most useful suite. To do this you would need. 1. Sufficient number of volunteers with the free time and skills to do this. 2. Get these volunteers to spend an indeterminate number of man hours researching and documenting each of several thousand preferences This may seem a naive question, but how on earth can those several thousand preferences not already be documented ? How can a volunteer usefully contribute to the project unless what is already accomplished is properly documented ? Surely new volunteers aren't expected to work out for themselves how everything works, are they ? I do understand that this is a distributed project, and that conventional ideas concerning project management may not be entirely relevant, but I would have thought (and expected) that everything accomplished so far would be properly documented so that those who volunteer to continue with the work will have a sound basis from which to start. 3. Compile the information into an indexed and searchable format. 4. Write some code to the about:config screen to link each entry to the relevant documentation. Such effort would, at least, have been of great potential benefit to all users of Seamonkey, whereas (and with the greatest respect) some of the effort that has gone into Seamonkey 2.2 (such as the switch to a tab-based browsing environment) is perhaps of far more restricted potential benefit. As has been written elsewhere, trying to bring Seamonkey into closer alignment with Firefox behaviour is not necessarily well-advised : those who want Firefox-like behaviour will already be using Firefox -- those of us that do not would (I suspect) prefer Seamonkey to remain as it was, at least as regards the user interface. Alternatively find someone who has already done all that. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/whats-that-preference/ Sadly that potential solution, interesting though it is, is apparently not relevant to this lists (Seamonkey-support), as it appears to work solely with a different product (Firefox 7 and later). Philip Taylor ___ support-seamonkey mailing list support-seamonkey@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
Re: about:config -- why no hyperhelp
Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd) schrieb: Is there any obvious reason why the about:config interface cannot/does not support hyperlinks to the relevant documentation, rather than requiring the user to search for it in hyperspace ? Yes, it's not supposed to be used by normal users, and it gives direct access to the guts of anything that any part of the application puts in a preference. It would even be impossible to document all of that, it's best not to touch this at all. If there's any reason at all a normal user needs to go in there, it's a bug and volunteers in the SeaMonkey project should fix that by either changing defaults or adding preferences UI. Robert Kaiser -- Note that any statements of mine - no matter how passionate - are never meant to be offensive but very often as food for thought or possible arguments that we as a community should think about. And most of the time, I even appreciate irony and fun! :) ___ support-seamonkey mailing list support-seamonkey@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
Re: about:config -- why no hyperhelp
Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:47:41 +0100, /Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd)/:
Philip Chee wrote:
Alternatively find someone who has already done all that.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/whats-that-preference/
Sadly that potential solution, interesting though it is, is
apparently not relevant to this lists (Seamonkey-support),
as it appears to work solely with a different product
(Firefox 7 and later).
Try downloading the whats_that_preference-0.3-fx.xpi extension
file locally. Unzip (as it is a basically a ZIP file), then modify
the install.rdf file to include SeaMonkey as target application,
as described on:
https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Extensions_support_in_SeaMonkey_2#The_Basics
Note, set the 'maxVersion' to something like 2.4.*:
em:targetApplication
!-- SeaMonkey --
Description
em:id{92650c4d-4b8e-4d2a-b7eb-24ecf4f6b63a}/em:id
em:minVersion2.1/em:minVersion
em:maxVersion2.4.*/em:maxVersion
/Description
/em:targetApplication
At the end, ZIP the unpacked and modified thing back, preserving the
file name (i.e. having *.xpi extension) and drop into SeaMonkey to
install. Works fine for me.
--
Stanimir
___
support-seamonkey mailing list
support-seamonkey@lists.mozilla.org
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
Re: about:config -- why no hyperhelp
Stanimir Stamenkov wrote: Try downloading the whats_that_preference-0.3-fx.xpi extension file locally. At the end, ZIP the unpacked and modified thing back, preserving the file name (i.e. having *.xpi extension) and drop into SeaMonkey to install. Works fine for me. Excellent, many thanks Stanimir : will give it a go ! Philip Taylor ___ support-seamonkey mailing list support-seamonkey@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
Re: about:config -- why no hyperhelp
Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:10:17 +0300, /Stanimir Stamenkov/: Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:47:41 +0100, /Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd)/: Philip Chee wrote: Alternatively find someone who has already done all that. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/whats-that-preference/ Sadly that potential solution, interesting though it is, is apparently not relevant to this lists (Seamonkey-support), as it appears to work solely with a different product (Firefox 7 and later). Try downloading the whats_that_preference-0.3-fx.xpi extension file locally. Unzip (as it is a basically a ZIP file), then modify the install.rdf file to include SeaMonkey as target application, as described on: https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Extensions_support_in_SeaMonkey_2#The_Basics I've also mailed the extension author asking him to include SeaMonkey in the official version. -- Stanimir ___ support-seamonkey mailing list support-seamonkey@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
Re: about:config -- why no hyperhelp
On 7/23/11 3:16 AM, Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd) wrote: In endeavouring to persuade Seamonkey 2.2 to behave more as I would wish (and as earlier versions always did), I find that I am making far more use than normal of about:config What makes this so intensely frustrating is that there is no hyperhelp associated with the keys, and I have to launch a new browser session and use Google in order to find the meaning of the various keys and their values. Is there any obvious reason why the about:config interface cannot/does not support hyperlinks to the relevant documentation, rather than requiring the user to search for it in hyperspace ? Philip Taylor I generally go to about:config in one tab and to http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries in another tab. That page is very much current. -- David E. Ross http://www.rossde.com/ On occasion, I might filter and ignore all newsgroup messages posted through GoogleGroups via Google's G2/1.0 user agent because of spam from that source. ___ support-seamonkey mailing list support-seamonkey@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
Re: about:config -- why no hyperhelp
Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:26:54 +0300, /Stanimir Stamenkov/: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/whats-that-preference/ I've also mailed the extension author asking him to include SeaMonkey in the official version. Unfortunately the author has replied he's not going to support SeaMonkey (or Thunderbird for that matter). -- Stanimir ___ support-seamonkey mailing list support-seamonkey@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
