[openbeos] Re: decoder config options

Gabriele Biffi wrote:

Alexandre Deckner wrote:
Wait - there shouldn't be a need for a separate config application at all! All the configuration should be done inside the application itself. But if we stick to a common format, the power user can use a generic editor (and if we use text files, we don't need one at all, but we can still make one if we want).
Yes yes, we agree. When i say editor, i think of a common ConfigView a la HtmlView that would be easily integrated and extendable in your app, or in a separate app.
I never liked those. A preferences panel should be nicely designed to fit the application. And not all settings goes into the preferences panel. It can stay in a generic editor, sure. But then we need another file to teach that editor the rules for our apps option, or put them into the settings file itself (that's what XML does).
I can understand it in an application with plugins, but there are very few of them.
Agreed. Even in an application with plugins/add-ons, you can just get the add-on to provide the UI - as happens in screensaver prefs or with translators for example.
Any options that the user is likely to be interested in should be positioned in the app itself, with careful thought about placement. Very rarely used settings in a text file using the driver_settings class allows all the copying/pasting advantages and a full description of what the setting does right next to it in the file. I guess I wouldn't be against some kind of generic editor for these types of settings, but I hope they will be so few and far between that one really won't be necessary. 

Simon

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