[opensource-dev] from debug to prefences

[Erin Mallory]

one of the things that oz and q have been grousing (to use oz's word) about lately is that there are LOTS of preferences in the debug menu that really don't have debug functions but are preferences.  Both oz and q feel that the preferences bar is already kind of full though many users want to see more preferences.
What I propose is kind of a compromise.
Here's how it would work. We take the existing advanced preferences tab and turn it into a floater activated if you click on where the advanced tab is now. we then bump many of the preferences that are in the debug over.  we can do it in kinda a category form as the sketch here shows or break it up into tabs.  
This would give the ui more of an mmo like presences control which would not necessarily be a bad thing and give faster, very easy and intuitive access to the more advanced features for those that want them and yet also allow us to keep both the preferences and debug consoles "clean."  with some careful monitoring and feedback from the users we could then possibly narrow down what settings are not really needed and eliminate them off this panel and conversely have a space to add new preferences as well.
I'm sure someone is going to argue that this would just make things more complicated both in the short term and long term. I'm going to attempt to answer those as follows. 
As far as the short term, yes it would. I'm sure it would involve quite a bit of code reworking and discussion and stuff. It would also take users a bit of time to adjust to the changes. 
In the long term, I think it would actually be simpler this way and add to the new user experience. by setting up things this way we could add ui hints and/or tool tips that explain what these preferences do, and if this one panel gets crowded, i don't think that most users will mind.  in fact those used to mmo's will be kind of expecting it.  in the mean time it gives us a place to part lesser used preferences from the prefences control, and clears up the debug menu while also making it easier to both move more used features back into the preferences menu and setting up for eventually allowing us to pick and choose what preferences we want where.  
 		 	   		  
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