879408 - Move the debugger prefs into the options panel

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(DevTools :: Debugger, defect, P3)

Description

[Victor Porof [:vporof][:vp]]

See also https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=705921#c40.

Comment 1

[Girish Sharma [:Optimizer]]

Do we want a pane per tool using the side menu widget ?
Right now, only debugger has enough options to have a separate pane. We console has only 1 and other tools to not really have tool specific properties. So right now it will be best to have like a "Tools" side menu entry which has all the tools' options combined. The current existing pane can be named "General" (Just like the initial plan was)

Comment 2

[Paul Rouget [:paul]]

I'd suggest that, for now, we just use a "options river" (all the options in one page). If it gets too crowded, we will start using a menu.

Comment 3

[Girish Sharma [:Optimizer]]

(In reply to Paul Rouget [:paul] from comment #2)
> I'd suggest that, for now, we just use a "options river" (all the options in
> one page). If it gets too crowded, we will start using a menu.

But this page should be a separate page from the current page, right ? because the current page is already overflowing.

Comment 4

[Paul Rouget [:paul]]

(In reply to Girish Sharma [:Optimizer] from comment #3)
> (In reply to Paul Rouget [:paul] from comment #2)
> > I'd suggest that, for now, we just use a "options river" (all the options in
> > one page). If it gets too crowded, we will start using a menu.
> 
> But this page should be a separate page from the current page, right ?
> because the current page is already overflowing.

You want to add tabs to avoid overflow? I'm ok with overflow.

Comment 5

[Girish Sharma [:Optimizer]]

(In reply to Paul Rouget [:paul] from comment #4)
> (In reply to Girish Sharma [:Optimizer] from comment #3)
> > (In reply to Paul Rouget [:paul] from comment #2)
> > > I'd suggest that, for now, we just use a "options river" (all the options in
> > > one page). If it gets too crowded, we will start using a menu.
> > 
> > But this page should be a separate page from the current page, right ?
> > because the current page is already overflowing.
> 
> You want to add tabs to avoid overflow? I'm ok with overflow.

Not tabs, but side menu thingy (its much more accessible).
Something like in this screenshot : https://bug851546.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=725684

I think that this is much better than "always have to scroll to see the option" scenario.

Comment 6

[Girish Sharma [:Optimizer]]

One note here: This approach will have a negative impact on Browser Debugger, where none of the options will be available. And for Browser debugger, which is using a separate profile, there will be no other way to change the prefs too.

Comment 7

[Victor Porof [:vporof][:vp]]

(In reply to Girish Sharma [:Optimizer] from comment #6)
> One note here: This approach will have a negative impact on Browser
> Debugger, where none of the options will be available. And for Browser
> debugger, which is using a separate profile, there will be no other way to
> change the prefs too.

We can keep the gear menu in the browser debugger's case, and revert to the Options panel otherwise. THe window._isChromeDebugger gette in debugger-controller.js helps with that.

Comment 8

[Girish Sharma [:Optimizer]]

(In reply to Victor Porof [:vp] from comment #7)
> (In reply to Girish Sharma [:Optimizer] from comment #6)
> > One note here: This approach will have a negative impact on Browser
> > Debugger, where none of the options will be available. And for Browser
> > debugger, which is using a separate profile, there will be no other way to
> > change the prefs too.
> 
> We can keep the gear menu in the browser debugger's case, and revert to the
> Options panel otherwise. THe window._isChromeDebugger gette in
> debugger-controller.js helps with that.

In that case, How will moving the options to Options panel just for content debugger be useful when we have these points :
- Extra code is being added to support both scenarios
- Options panel will become cluttered
- To change the settings, people will have to switch to another tool. Basically we are introducing more number of clicks/shortcuts before a user can change a setting.

Comment 9

[Victor Porof [:vporof][:vp]]

(In reply to Girish Sharma [:Optimizer] from comment #8)

> In that case, How will moving the options to Options panel just for content
> debugger be useful when we have these points :
> - Extra code is being added to support both scenarios

There's much too little code involved for this to really matter, IMHO.

> - Options panel will become cluttered

What? Really?

> - To change the settings, people will have to switch to another tool.
> Basically we are introducing more number of clicks/shortcuts before a user
> can change a setting.

People expect settings to be in Settings. Hunting them down differently for each tool introduces fragmentation/annoyance.

It's cognitively much easier to think that "if I want to tweak something, it's most likely in that Options panel", versus "I want to tweak something, where the hell do I even start looking for it?"

Comment 10

[Victor Porof [:vporof][:vp]]

> (In reply to Girish Sharma [:Optimizer] from comment #6)
> > One note here: This approach will have a negative impact on Browser
> > Debugger, where none of the options will be available.

Also, keep in mind that there are maybe 10 people using the Browser debugger. I assert (and hope) that there are many more using the Content debugger. Consequently, they should matter more (that's not to say we need to ignore the former category, hence my comment #7).

Comment 11

[Girish Sharma [:Optimizer]]

Agreed. Lets see how the approach goes (wrt Options panel cluttering). Although 5 more options should not be that much at this point of time.

Comment 12

[Paul Rouget [:paul]]

About options panel cluttering: this is our very least problem. This panel is here to unclutter other tools. It's far from being cluttered right now, and if we ever consider it is cluttered (that won't happen soon), we will do something about it.

Comment 13

[Dave Camp (:dcamp)]

Are you planning to move "Stop on exceptions" as part of this?  The other options seem like real Options (things I might set occasionally depending on my preferences), but "Stop on exceptions" feels very session-dependent and something I'm likely to toggle on and off while I debug.

Comment 14

[Girish Sharma [:Optimizer]]

(In reply to Dave Camp (:dcamp) from comment #13)
> Are you planning to move "Stop on exceptions" as part of this?  The other
> options seem like real Options (things I might set occasionally depending on
> my preferences), but "Stop on exceptions" feels very session-dependent and
> something I'm likely to toggle on and off while I debug.

bug 882790 might help there.

Comment 15

[Jason Laster [:jlast]]

closing as this is related to the old debugger.