1089164 - about:config should allow to change data type of preference (string, boolean...)

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Toolkit :: Preferences, enhancement)

Description

[Andreas Eibach]

Hi, bug 410312 has shown that about:config will reset a boolean variable to string(undefined) when it's reset.

Since even for a very experienced user, it's totally confusing when a data type changes on the fly just after a reset or an assignment to 'undefined', it would help a lot if we could change the data type directly in about:config.

Now I can imagine someone of you guys will answer "Just restart the browser, and the boolean value will be remembered."

Sure it will! But who'd know when he's trying that first time? (might even confuse a web developer who has developed 10 years for Opera and now changed to FF)
First time, he will think "OMG, type is now 'string', and I can't change it via context menu.

So what will even the most experienced user do, in his desperation?

Most likely, he'll go EDITING prefs.js manually and "fix" the data type by setting it to "true" or "false" (without the quotes).

What I'm trying to point out is: A browser restart won't be necessary if the type of a preference value is directly changeable via about:config.

Lastly: What if a user WRONGLY chose a data type? String instead of Boolean? Deleting the value is _not_ possible via about:config, except for hand-editing prefs.js.

This proposed enhancement would easily be able to deal with these situations.

Comment 1

[Andreas Eibach]

Additional remark: Though as a Linux enthusiast I don't like to mention the common OS with the big W, this *is* already available in their registry: especially regedt32 has always been very apt to fine-tune the data type of the registry key. And ... uh ... is there really such a big difference between the prefs.js file and a human-readable .reg file (saved in older NT format)? That's the question ...