[Pan-users] Options, multiplicity of

[Beartooth]

Duncan commented in another thread :

Do note that pan's default cache size is only 10 MB, however, so this
wouldn't work too well for binaries unless you increase the cache size.
That's possible by editing preferences.xml, but not from the GUI, as
again, Charles decided that was too complex an option to expose to "mere
users".  Well, I guess pan /is/ a GNOME family application, even if it
only requires GTK not all of GNOME installed.  As such, I suppose it's to
be expected that it gets infected with the "users are scared of too many
options" meme that so frustrates many power and KDE users trying to use
Gnome and Gnome family apps.  OTOH, there's others, the "I just want it to
work as it is, I get confused if there's too many options" folks, that do
just that, get confused, by all the options typically exposed by a KDE
app, so whatever.

        Seems to me there's a third way, especially for Charles. Other 
linux apps, such as Brasero and K3b, make lots of options available, but 
manage to set the defaults very well. So does Pan, already.

        Those of us who know little and care less about CD/DVD technology 
can ignore them, and the apps "just work" (TM). But those who know more 
can (I think) get at the places to do the tweaks they want. 

        This is a huge, invaluable advance -- and one right up Charles's 
alley. It's also, praise be!, the way Linux in general has been 
developing for the last ten or twelve years. (Look at installers and 
updaters, for instance. In '98 I couldn't even manage to install RH6; now 
I try about a dozen distros on things like the EeePC, to find one that 
suits both it and me, and think little of it -- not because I've changed 
much, but because the installers have.)

        Until the advent of K3b (or until someone told me of it; I run 
Gnome, and have a strange aversion to most of KDE), I'd've had to go take 
another master's degree, or at least do enough work for one, to have 
become able to use any ripper or burner out there. Now I do it all the 
time.

        Similarly with Pan -- and here we have a parade example, as the 
Germans would say. 

        My arrangement with Alpine (first to get it to work with Pan, and 
then to make the font size legible) was perfectly feasible, once I needed 
it and found people here who knew things; but until that arose, I had 
gone on happily using Pan for years, in blissful ignorance of one whole 
complexity.

        Therefore I hope, when he next gets to Pan again, Charles will 
exercise his talent in setting defaults, and trust it when in doubt.

-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, PhD, Neo-Redneck Linux Convert
Remember I know precious little of what I am talking about.