279982 - Remove the 'Use system home page' checkbox

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Camino Graveyard :: Preferences, defect, P3)

Description

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

We should remove this checkbox; it's calls Internet Config code, and there's no
system UI to set it. We should just store the home page in mozilla prefs.

Comment 1

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

but doesn't it still exist on 10.2?

Comment 2

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

IIRC, a dedicated UI does still exist on 10.2 (Internet prefpane).

On 10.3, Safari writes this IC key, so 1) there's still an Apple-provided UI to
change it and 2) users migrating from Safari, IE (if any are left), and perhaps
other browsers using IC (if there are any) would expect that their existing
homepage setting be picked up.  And the key is populated by default in a new
user account, so a system homepage always exists.

As a devil's advocate of the true spirit of simplicity, I'd argue that the
checkbox should go away and Camino should read and write that IC key, too (in
other words, always use the system homepage), but I don't think that's what smfr
had in mind :-)

Apple really fubared a great, time-tested, well-suported system when they moved
all the UI out of the system prefpane into their own apps, didn't they :-(

Comment 3

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

we need to make a choice here. always use the IC pref or always keep our own.
What should we do?

Comment 4

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

We should just strip out all the IC code and use the mozilla pref. IC is dead, baby.

Comment 5

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

Attachment: Patch to remove most Internet Config code

This patch removes all the Camino internet config code, other than that used to
write the downloads folder (which it cleans up). We still use IC for the
downloads folder, read via NS_GetSpecialDirectory(NS_MAC_DEFAULT_DOWNLOAD_DIR,
...) and written directly, because it allows us to share this setting with
Safari (which also writes this value to Internet Config).

Comment 6

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> We still use IC for the
> downloads folder, read via NS_GetSpecialDirectory(NS_MAC_DEFAULT_DOWNLOAD_DIR,
> ...) and written directly, because it allows us to share this setting with
> Safari (which also writes this value to Internet Config).

If we're keeping the downloads directory stuff since that key is shared with
Safari, why not keep the "Use system home page" checkbox, too, as Safari also
sets/uses the IC homepage value?  I'm still confused on this.

Comment 7

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

(In reply to comment #6)
> (In reply to comment #5)
> > We still use IC for the
> > downloads folder, read via NS_GetSpecialDirectory(NS_MAC_DEFAULT_DOWNLOAD_DIR,
> > ...) and written directly, because it allows us to share this setting with
> > Safari (which also writes this value to Internet Config).
> 
> If we're keeping the downloads directory stuff since that key is shared with
> Safari, why not keep the "Use system home page" checkbox, too, as Safari also
> sets/uses the IC homepage value?  I'm still confused on this.

Because we (Camino) never writes the home page pref, and in 10.3,104, there is
no system UI to change it, so the user would have to launch Safari to change
their home page (which they'd never figure out). It seems that the benefits of
sharing the home page pref are not worth the complexity.

Comment 8

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

Comment on attachment 193366 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch to remove most Internet Config code

r=pink

Comment 9

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

Fixed on trunk and branch.