261880 - GUI configuration of items in about:config, especially print settings

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, enhancement)

Description

[Daniel Kasak]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040810 Firefox/0.9.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040810 Firefox/0.9.3

The about:config 'screen' is OK for hacking some thing's into Firefox, but it is
a terrible interface for end users.

In particular, print settings are giving me grief on our network. Firefox
defaults to 'Letter' sized print jobs, which locks our ( admittedly **** )
printers. To combat this, I enter about:config, filter on the string 'print',
select print.postscript.paper_size and replace 'Letter' with 'A4'.

This is just an example ( the most relevant example for us ). There are many
more items in here that really should have a friendly GUI tool for setting.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Enter URL about:config
2. Pretend you're a typical user

Actual Results:  
Presented with a LONG list of options - some of which were mildly interesting,
others which were quite important, and yet more which I couldn't figure out at all.

Expected Results:  
I'd like to see the more everyday-type options have a GUI config tool. I don't
mind these settings showing up in about:config as well, as long as there is an
easy configuration method.

Comment 1

[José Jeria]

I doubt that about:config is for end-users though. Adding GUI to that would just
confuse people, something that Firefox is trying not to do.

Comment 2

[Daniel Kasak]

I'm not proposing to include ALL items in about:config ... just some simple ones.

I gave the example of setting default print settings. Print settings in
particular ARE end-user-configurable items.

Comment 3

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

most of those items were in the Suite prefs, but were removed since they were
little-used.  The print settings do need work, but that's something that is true
for Seamonkey as well, and the subject of longer-standing bugs.  Keep in mind
that non-native print dialogs will always be less functional than proper OS
print dialogs (like Windows/OS X have).