Talk:About:config entries

What is the * for on many of the headings and entries? Also, would it look better if the prefs were left-justified (=left-aligned)? --Mozcerize

The * has been used as a wildcard to indicate anything, e.g. "Browser.*" would be "any entry that begins with browser." It was just the convention on the page, though probably not strictly necessary. The prefs would look better left-aligned, though Wiki turns them all into <th> cells and they're centered instead. --Unarmed 07:41, 27 Feb 2005 (PST)

Ah, yes it's clear now; I didn't see the "." so I thought the headings were "Accessibility*" not "Accessibility.*". --Mozcerize

Default values

To anyone editing this page: Please keep in mind that the specified "Default value" for each preference is not the "recommended" or "tweaked" value. It is the value that is specified when you install the browser.

Line breaking

Rather than putting in spaces in the config names, why not use the ‌ Unicode character for a non-joining zero-width character? :-) PhilHibbs

It gives inconsistent rendering results in Firefox. In Windows, at least, it displays only as a thin black bar and does not give wbr-equivalent behavior --Unarmed 06:40, 18 Apr 2005 (PDT)

Why do we use spaces between the config. names anyway? It's rather non-user-friendly to have to edit out the spaces when copying and pasting a name of a preference.

The longer preference names will cause the table they're in to extend past the edge of the page, requiring horizontal scrolling. --Unarmed 11:14, 25 Jun 2005 (PDT)

There has also been recent forum discussion on using the wbr tag. This tag works perfectly fine in a standard page, and would need to be enabled on the kb before it could be used.

Example: the text "accessibility. typeaheadfind. enablesound" could be changed to "accessibility.typeaheadfind.enablesound" - Racer 21 Dec 2006

Missing entries

I am particularily interested in the missing entries for java.* entries of which are present on my browser's options, but that I can't find documentation on. For I seek to use them if possible to change configurations for my Java plugin in firefox.

Thunderbirds about:config entries

Is it possible that there is no description of Thunderbirds about:config entries on mozillaZine. Or didn't I find them. I'm looking for a description of the ldap*.*- and mail.*- entries. --BeCo 10:41, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

There aren't many on this listing, no. I don't use Thunderbird myself, but of course others are free to document the settings and add them to the page. --Unarmed 15:39, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Split article

This article is huge. I think we should split it. --LouCypher ☎ 21:43, 21 Aug 2005 (PDT)

By branch? Or did you have something else in mind? ... Even though it's huge, it is fairly convenient to be able to search the entire list in one go. --Unarmed 12:54, 22 Aug 2005 (PDT)

I think we can split the content between a few pages, like "about:config entries (A-N)", then create a "long list of about:config entries", which would include the smaller pages (using {{:page name}}). --asqueella 05:19, 19 September 2005 (PDT)

Yes, by branch. We can make a new Category:about:config entries to each split article and a template to link to other branch. The only problem is how to name the article because we can use * to an article name. Any more idea? --LouCypher ☎

I'm beginning work on an article-per-preference scheme. That'll give us Category:Preferences as an automatic index, leaving this article free to be organized however. I tend to agree with asqueella's suggestion, but I'm not dead-set on any particular idea. --Unarmed 19:11, 17 October 2005 (PDT)

Merge with about:config

I don't really see the need to have this article and the about:config article. We should merge them.--Np 21:08, 26 August 2005 (PDT)

I disagree; I think 1) the average user looking at this article already knows how to use about:config, 2) we don't need a longer article, 3) it's convenient to point people to a brief unintimidating article about how to use about:config, 4) having this list in an article named "About:config" would encourage even more edits of the settings in the mistaken belief that this Wiki article is about:config. --Unarmed 21:41, 26 August 2005 (PDT)

I'm concerned with the amount of users (me included) who find an article called about:config but don't find this article because all there is is a buried link. Maybe I'll just make the link to this article on that article much more prominent.--Np 09:14, 29 August 2005 (PDT)

Replacing entries with link to Category:Preferences

Should we do that for branches that have been completely transferred?--Np 03:45, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

I wouldn't be opposed to that, but I'd like to hear everyone's opinions. --Unarmed 20:23, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Well it looks like no one has an opinion on this except you and me. I say we do it to eliminate duplicate information. I've also noticed that some of the entries on this page are wrong or misleading because they require a lot more space to explain. The only downside I can see is it will prevent people from searching this page, but they can't really do that anyway with the spaces in the pref names.--Np 17:34, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

For searching, I more often search for keywords in the descriptions. Perhaps the best approach would be to link to Category:Preferences in each branch, and add a bit of text describing the most-used prefs' effects. E.g., "The accessibility branch of preferences allows you to modify Find As You Type behavior, change how the [Tab] key works in web pages and XUL, turn on caret browsing, and tweak other accessibility-related features." That would give us a good summary that wouldn't easily go out of date, and if every pref is article-ified eventually, the page will still have somewhat of a purpose. --Unarmed 23:36, 13 December 2005 (UTC)