Thank you Christoph!

I found some old configuration code of mine that was setting some
preferences that no longer exist, and was shocked that it simply ignored my
request instead of complaining!  This is a dreadful bug still present in
trunk to this day, check it out!

    Preferences enable: #oogalaboogala  "works!"

Soo bad!  It not only makes it really hard to know there's a problem at
all, but also how to find and fix it (e.g., what was the preference renamed
to?)!  These kinds of silent failures are the 2nd-worst kinds of bugs one
can have (the 1st-worst are silent corruptors of your data).

Anything to make this more defined and/or brittle is a welcome improvement.

Thanks,
  Chris

On Sat, May 21, 2022 at 11:59 AM Thiede, Christoph <
Christoph.Thiede at student.hpi.uni-potsdam.de> wrote:

> Hi Marcel,
>
>
> but this would still leave a chance that we miss any historic states. My
> proposal is a bit more radical in this regard, but it makes sure that we
> have a consistent and deterministic set of preference values ... What
> problems would you concretely see with that? The only visible effect should
> be that in a freshly generated image, the default button in the preference
> browser does not change any preferences to ancient defaults. :-)
>
>
> Best,
>
> Christoph
> ------------------------------
> *Von:* Squeak-dev <squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org> im
> Auftrag von Taeumel, Marcel
> *Gesendet:* Samstag, 21. Mai 2022 04:07:30
> *An:* squeak-dev
> *Betreff:* Re: [squeak-dev] Default preferences
>
> > my proposal would be that we set all Preferences' defaultValues to
> their value during the release building
>
> This would be kind of dangerous and difficult to manage regarding a proper
> base image for the CI (i.e., the bundles). I think we should rather uncover
> what is not yet set in ReleaseBuilder class >> #setPreferences and fill in
> the gaps. That's makes it explicit. For those values, we can surely set the
> defaults for old-style preferences.
>
> Best,
> Marcel
>
> Am 20.05.2022 06:55:47 schrieb Thiede, Christoph <
> christoph.thiede at student.hpi.uni-potsdam.de>:
>
> Hi Jaromir, hi all,
>
>
> thanks for finding this! This is insane. I suppose that no one in the last
> years has ever pressed this "default" button and thus this inconsistency
> was never found.
>
>
> We seem to have two sources of truth here:
>
> 1. The default value of each preference:
>
>   1a. For pragma preferences, this is encoded in the getter of the
> preference (i.e., Model class>>#useColorfulWindows falls back to true).
>
>   1b. For old-style preferences, this is the defaultValue variable of the
> preference instance (this is not encoded anywhere, just historic instances
> that have been handed down since years or decades via the release images
> like the Olympic torch). See Preferences preferenceAt:
> #fastDragWindowForMorphic for example.
>
> 2. The default values encoded in the ReleaseBuilder (or actually, the
> ReleaseBuilders, since this thing is even subclassed), see #setPreferences.
> For instance, here #useColorfulWindows is set to false.
>
>
> This is really crazy. I feel like traveling ten years back in time after
> clicking that button. I don't know how we should solve the two sources of
> truth problem, but my proposal would be that we set all Preferences'
> defaultValues to their value during the release building - how do you think
> about that? Would some others agree with that? If yes, I can implement &
> upload that.
>
>
> > A theme is not a 'preference', despite the Preference Wizard sets it,
> right? (slightly confusing but ok)
>
>
> Yes. The Preference Wizard does not display all preferences, but it also
> provides access to some other options. For instance, the preference browser
> also does not have logic for installing recommended packages. :-)
>
>
> Best,
>
> Christoph
>
> ------------------------------
> *Von:* Squeak-dev <squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org> im
> Auftrag von Jaromir Matas <mail at jaromir.net>
> *Gesendet:* Freitag, 20. Mai 2022 10:03:23
> *An:* Squeak Dev
> *Betreff:* [squeak-dev] Default preferences
>
>
> Hi All,
>
> A quick question: What are the 'default preferences'?
>
>
>
> I thought they were the ones the fresh image comes with but when you open
> a Preference Browser and hit the 'default' button you get another set of
> preferences (round buttons, colorful windows etc.) – is this a bug? Is
> there a way to get back to the preferences the image comes with?
>
>
>
> A theme is not a 'preference', despite the Preference Wizard sets it,
> right? (slightly confusing but ok) (BTW the Community Dark theme is
> awesome! Even italic comments :) Using it all the time)
>
>
>
> Also, if I check the 'English' tick-box in Extras -> Language, the flaps
> show (that must be a bug).
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> --
>
> *Jaromír Matas*
>
> mail at jaromir.net
>
>
>
>
>
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