Fixing bug #600574 - Would like to disable creation of log files and backup files entirely

Christian Stimming stimming at tuhh.de
Sat Jun 12 09:59:53 EDT 2010


Commented at bugzilla:

I don't like the idea of changing the semantics of the existing preference 
(here: retain = 0) so drastically. Instead, from a user perspective, I'd like 
to see this change being implemented as a new element in the preferences. 
Ideally as a radiobox: "[ ] Disable log files  [ ] Enable log file and keep 
for [...] days", similar to the date chooser (absolute vs. relative dates) of 
the reports. With such a combination, the semantics of the existing preference 
don't have to be changed.

Am Saturday 12 June 2010 schrieb Geert Janssens:
> I do believe though that the change in functionality makes sense. For non-
> technical people not keeping any logs if this preference is set 0 days
> would make much more sense than it to mean keep logs forever. That is my
> main decision to implement it this way.

This is absolutely true if we were talking about a newly introduced 
preference. However, in this case we're basically reversing the semantic of 
this particular preference setting ("keep forever" into "no keeping at all"), 
and even though we could announce this in announcements, it is still too 
drastic a change IMHO.

> I'm still pondering whether it would make more sense to apply the patch
> now, ignoring the string freeze, or waiting until after the 2.4 release.
> 
> For me personally, it feels better to introduce such a change in behaviour
> in a major release than in a minor one. I think a minor release should
> behave as consistent as possible while a major release can introduce new
> ways of doing things.

Agreed, but rather with a differently implemented change.

Regards,

Christian


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