347476 - There should be UI for setting dom.max_script_run_time

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Thunderbird :: Preferences, enhancement)

Description

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.6) Gecko/20060804 Firefox/1.5.0.6
Build Identifier: "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.6) Gecko/20060804 Thunderbird/1.5.0.5" - Build ID: 2006080404

see below; see also Firefox bug 347365 (this is Thunderbird).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open "Edit -> Preferences" (or "Tools -> Options") menu.
2. Open the various tabs and submenus, looking for the timeout delay before a script is declared "unresponsive".


Actual Results:  
Preference in question is nowhere to be found.

Expected Results:  
Preference should exist somewhere among the "Preferences", not only as a "needle in the haystack" in about:config or prefs.js


Additional information:
The time delay before a script is declared "unresponsive" and causes a popup
message is currently fixed at 5 seconds, and can only be modified by means of
about:config (or user.js). This 5-second delay is in many cases too short:
after noticing that, in most cases, clicking "Continue" allowed (in Firefox)
the page to open normally, or (in Thunderbird) the compose window for the
"reply to all" email to open normally, with no adverse effects, I went on a
hunt for where that timeout was defined. After a little trial-and-error, I have
set dom.max_script_run_time to 30 seconds in Firefox and to 15 in Thunderbird;
the result is much more satisfactory for me, with my kind of browsing and my
set of installed extensions.

I realise that the ideal value cannot be determined once and for all, for all
users of Firefox, Thunderbird, Camino and the Mozilla Suite; therefore I
believe that users should be able to set this timeout easily to whatever value
they prefer, without having to resort to a needle-in-the-haystack search in
about:config. My own preferred values are currently not the same for Firefox and Thunderbird.

This is all the more needed because, if and when the popup opens, the
corresponding tab becomes focused, which can be annoying if the user was in the
process of clicking on a link or a button.

In the case of Thunderbird, it used to be the case that accessing the about:config page required installing an extension. I haven't checked recently if Tb can now, or still can't, do it "out of the box". If it can't, then user.js is the only method, and good luck to find the pref name; but even if it can, IMHO different users will probably prefer different settings, so the pref should be easily settable.

Comment 1

[Gary Kwong [:gkw] [:nth10sd] (NOT official MoCo now)]

CC'ing TB UI gurus...

Comment 2

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

TB does now have the about:config accessible from the Adv. preferences page so I think this use case is pretty well handled for the people looking to change this value.