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On 6.10.2004, space aliens observed Sune Foldager saying:

Good, argumentative reasons for it, please! :-).

For me, it went something like this:

"OK, now I want to change the background color of this window. That must be in Preferences. Uhm. No preferences in the app menu. Must be burried somewhere. Probably in Edit. Nope. Maybe in Window? Nah. Okay, so I'll go through each menu. Oh, Color Settings. Okay, but that only works with syntax highlighting disabled. That must mean that there are more settings somewhere else. I guess I just missed the Preferences. They *must* be in the app menu. Argh. Okay, "TextMate Help". What, you mean I can't change this?"

Had all settings been inside a Preferences dialog, it would have been clear what the user can change and what he can't right from the beginning.

Having preferences inside the menu has additional problems. It clutters the menu with things you use seldomly, which makes things you use more often (like actual commands) harder to find. And it makes it harder to find preferences, because it's often not clear where a given preference should go, and if you can't find it, you can't be sure whether you just missed it or whether it simply doesn't exist at all. A preferences window also gives you room for additional information about settings.

BTW, what the heck is "Freehanded edit"?

lucas

- -- "Afer all, who needs courage when you have a gun?" -- Prof Hubert Farnsworth