Daniel <[email protected]> wrote:
> Rob wrote:
>> Daniel <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Rob wrote:
>>>> Daniel <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>> Not wanting to get picky-picky (because of the work you do for us SM
>>>>> users) but reading between the lines here, does this imply that hidden
>>>>> prefs don't (necessarily) do anything, or did you just mis-type "hidden"
>>>>> rather than "absent"??
>>>>
>>>> You have to understand that in about:config you can basically type any
>>>> name you want and set it to any value you want. Only when the program
>>>> code is reading the name you typed it will do anything. There is a
>>>> pre-populated list of names and values that you see, but even that
>>>> does not guarantee that changing them actually has any effect at all.
>>>> There can be names/values in the list that are never (or no longer)
>>>> used anywhere in the program.
>>>
>>> Rob, I am aware that "There is a pre-populated list of names and values
>>> that you see". I am aware that more can be hand-added. I am also aware
>>> that there is a pre-populated list of names and values that you *don't*
>>> see i.e. hidden prefs.
>>
>> But that is not correct. There is no such list.
>> Hidden prefs are those prefs that *are* read from the program code,
>> but are *not* in the list of prefs that you see. When you know the
>> name of such a pref, you can add it and set its value. Just you can
>> add "this.is.a.pref" and set it to 1. The difference is that no piece
>> of code checks the value of "this.is.a.pref" and so this setting has
>> no effect.
>
> So, Rob, I typed there were prefs that we *don't* see, and you typed
> there's no such list then you continued to typed that there are hidden
> prefs as part of the program source code.
>
> So which is it??
They are in the sourcecode, but not in a list. They are scattered all
over the source lines that together are seamonkey.
Take the pref "advanced.mailftp" as an example. It is referenced in
the sourcecode like this:
rv = prefs->GetBoolPref("advanced.mailftp", &useRealEmail);
This reads the advanced.mailftp pref and puts the value in useRealEmail.
It is also in the normal list of preferences because in all.js it shows:
pref("advanced.mailftp", false);
I.e. there is a visible pref advanced.mailftp and its default is false.
Now look at the pref "app.updatecheck.override". This is read in the
source code:
return !Services.prefs.getBoolPref("app.updatecheck.override");
However, it is not listed in all.js. And so you'll never know about
it when you open about:config unless someone has manually added that
pref and set a value. That is what is called a hidden pref.
To make a list of those, you would have to scan all sourcefiles for
calls to the functions that retrieve preferences, and get the parameters
of those functions. This is not a trivial task, because the parameter
may not be a literal (like in the examples above). The name can be
dynamically constructed from literal parts and variable parts, in a
program variable, which is then passed to the function.
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