Preference panels with tabs should remember the selected tab

[jonas.kirilla]

Preference panels with a tabbed interface should remember which tab was showing when the panel was closed, and open that tab. ScreenSaver does that. The others don't.

[ahartford]

I'd like to work on this task. I've already modified "Appearance" to remember the selected tab and will continue with the others.

One question though: Is it also OK to make any preflets I modify remember/restore the window position as well, or would that change need to be associated with a ticket?

[X512]

I didn't know about this feature of ScreenSaver preflet. I think that feature is useless.

[ahartford]

Replying to X512:

I didn't know about this feature of ScreenSaver preflet. I think that feature is useless.

Sometimes little touches like this help users make a personal connection with software. In that regard, they're useful.

More important though, all Haiku apps/preflets should have consistent behavior. Remembering window size/position and tab selection are easy things to do, so they should be done, IMHO.

So it's not really a feature, but just standard behavior.

[Disreali]

I actually find apps/prefs that remember window size/position/tab to be extremely annoying.

Such a questionable feature should not be the default. However, I have no issue with adding an optional checkbox to switch the behavior, for those who like it.

[humdinger]

I'm not sure how I feel about saving size/position/tab. While I see the benefit with applications I use often, preference panels are not something one usually runs regularly.

In that light, I may be more annoyed if I open e.g. Time prefs and am greeted with the "Network time" tab, because that was the one I had open 2 months ago when I last quit the prefs. I'd have expected the analog clock and am taken aback on first glance.
Users following the user guide or similar tutorial may be disoriented at first, when they open an app and it looks different.
Saving size/position/tab may require an additional config file, bloating the settings folder a bit more.

OTOH, panels like the Sounds prefs could benefit from saving size/position, as the list of sounds probably won't fit into the default window. People with large screens may opt to have vertically large window. Netbook users don't.

Still not sure. I'd say saving size/position might be OK, active-tab isn't that useful.

[axeld]

I think both sides have good arguments, and while it sounds somewhat crazy, a possible compromise would be to have the panel remember the tab only until next boot or something like that. But since this might be just too weird, if I needed to decide between the two options, I would be for not remembering the active tab in preferences applications.

I think there is value in having it remember its size, and position. I would not like to have an extra setting for it.