[callahad]

> Otherwise, you get to irritate 40-60% of your users.

The survey says nothing about how strongly folks hold that preference. I may prefer Schwepps Ginger Ale, but I'm not going to be irritated when offered Canada Dry instead. That "40-60%" number is a ceiling, not a floor.

[bluejekyll]

I would be very irritated if I couldn't put my bar on the left. I put it in the left on every UI I use.

The reasoning seems sound though. Where there is no strong user preference, consider making it configurable.

The only way you find out how irritated people would be without the option would be to piss them off.

[cx1000]

Consider eclipse. It allows the user to configure every. Single. Thing. And in doing so makes configuration difficult because there are so many options. Sane defaults and a consistent environment are better, imho.

[arealperson]

Sane defaults and extremely detailed configuration options can coexist.

Those users who like the sane defaults can just stick with them. Those users who don't like those defaults can use the configuration options to fine-tune their experience.

[bkor]

If you have loads of options it can be almost impossible to know the options. Even basic things can be difficult to find. This is usually "solved" by things like an "advanced" button but that means you'll just end up clicking the advanced button in loads of places.

IMO sane defaults and extremely detailed configuration go against each other. The detailed configuration makes it impossible to find the option you want.

[bluejekyll]

Yeah. A great point. I do find eclipse to be too configurable, and part of why I use IntelliJ (for Java). Apple software is generally on the other end of that spectrum, which annoys many people; although you'll notice that even there you can put the bar on the left, right or bottom.

[vbezhenar]

When I opened Xcode preferences first time, I thought it was a bug or there's another real preferences dialog somewhere.

[johnbellone]

That's because Eclipse is basically an operating system like Emacs.

[pawadu]

As a long time Emacs user I find your comment very offending.

Emacs is nothing like Eclipse. If anything, I would compare Eclipse to Vim: bare bone its useless, with plug-ins its just too big and unstable.

:)