Philippe advocates against having a "Preference Menu Item". He distinguishes between State Info and Style Info in the Preferences Menu Item and says that User data, should not go under Preferences, he explicitly makes this disctinction. He hates the word preferences and would prefer "config" and "styles" instead.

Grant on the other hand thinks it�s inevitable to have them. In the thread it is very interesting what he says about the evolution about iTunes preferences, from not having (almost) any to needing to have much more through the different milestones. Also it is very intersting what he "feels" about ownership of a program. How tweaking a UI makes him feel that he owns it, that it�s not someone else anymore.

Mimi, Oh Mimi! reminds me of a professor I had of Semiotics!. She is right though (At least I think so :o)) She states that they are neither preferences nor user data, its all "metadata". Sorry on this one Mimi, I think it is too complex for the layman although perfectly correct!

Philippe states something that I believe its the eye of the storm. He talks about the complexity in finding items in a preference panel. He then proposes a way to distinguish a preference from user data. I still, personaly, find it too complex for the layman when people will still have to learn a whole new metaphor that is in it�s own Chandler.

John Anderson talks about the problem of having too many preferences, and also about if a preference is deleted, then there is always a default option and this is what makes it a preference.

Please note that the views are subjective, and it may not reflect entirely what the people wrote

-- DanielVareika - 16 Nov 2005

Philippe's comment

My point was mostly from a developer standpoint, not from a user standpoint. I never thought to impose the words "config" and "styles" onto users. I was thinking about using them internally instead of the catch all "preferences". The distinction I draw between user data and preferences is not supposed to be used by layman persons but by developers when having to decide if something is a user data or a pref.