367048 - Common default prefs should be in ONE file, shared by all apps

Status: NEW

(Toolkit :: Preferences, defect)

Description

[Mats Palmgren (inactive)]

In bug 358764 comment 51 there is a request to update the pref
"browser.backspace_action" for SeaMonkey-as-xul-app so that it matches Firefox.
This is silly because most of the default prefs are the same and it would
be much more maintainable if they are shared through a common file that is
included into all apps.

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

The problem with putting browser.backspace_action into a common prefs file like all.js is that it isn't relevant to applications that aren't browsers, and the two different pieces of code that read it are in application-specific code. Or are you suggesting having a web browser-specific prefs file for inclusion in Firefox and SeaMonkey? That could potentially make sense if there's a large enough set of default preferences that the two apps share, I guess, though it happens fairly often that those two products want to have different defaults.

Comment 2

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

That used to be all.js, but why does Sunbird or Thunderbird or any other Gecko embedder want these pref settings?

That pref is only relevant to two apps, and it doesn't make sense to have an "all-browsers.js" file that Seamonkey and Firefox would share, especially since in a number of cases we might decide on default values differently and then have to dump the pref back into the app-specific file.  It saves overhead when there's agreement, but adds unnecessary conflict in the opposite case.