Disambiguate "Editor Settings" and "Project Settings -> Editor"

[BenMcLean]

Describe the project you are working on

Porting Wolfenstein 3-D to VR

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

I go looking for setting the command line parameters to run my program with and have trouble finding it. It turns out this isn't called "Command Line Parameters" and is instead called, "Main Run Args" and is under "Project Settings -> Editor" and not under "Editor Settings."

But this got me to thinking:

It is so confusing that Godot has a "Project Settings" with an "Editor" section within it and also at the same time has a "Editor Settings" which is completely separate with different separate stuff in it. These get mixed up constantly. People find the wrong thing when somebody's trying to help them because they're both called "Editor" and they're both in the settings.

I know why they're separated: it's because Project Settings are project-specific while Editor Settings are global. But why do they have to be separate and at the same time be named the same? That's confusing. IMHO, it should be renamed differently to be less confusing.

There's nothing wrong with the code here or with the scope of the actual settings: it's just that naming more than one section the same in the GUI is a bad practice in interface design.

It seems like we always have to fight against the stereotypical programmer attitude of, "if the code works then interface design doesn't matter because the GUI makes perfect sense to the person who wrote the code" -- that's a bad argument when designing software for humans.

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation

I would suggest that "Editor Settings" be renamed to "Global Settings" in the Godot Editor GUI. This would be clearer because just as "Project Settings" expresses the scope of the settings being project-specific, the proposed "Global Settings" name would also express the scope of the settings it contains while the current "Editor Settings" name does not clearly describe the scope.

Alternatively, we could rename "Project Settings -> Editor" to something other than "Editor." But I'm not sure what.

Also, within the "Project Settings" it would be nice if searching for "command line parameters" would bring up the "Main Run Args" in settings so it could be found quicker. If "command line parameters" is what you're used to calling them, googilng it won't bring up "Main Run Args" -- or at least it didn't for me. Took a long time to find it.

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams

This should just be affecting what things are called in the GUI, not code.

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?

Absolutely not.

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?

Yes, it's part of the Godot Editor interface.

[dalexeev]

I think we need to move these settings to the Editor Settings. And, if necessary, add the ability to override the editor settings per project (like git has global settings and local to the project). Also, the Editor Settings window should have two tabs for global and local settings, or otherwise resolve this situation.

Example

[YuriSizov]

I think we need to move these settings to the Editor Settings.

I don't believe so, they seem to be project specific. But the name of the section could be improved, I guess.

add the ability to override the editor settings per project (like git has global settings and local to the project).

This is a separate matter that needs its own proposal (with the implementation detail). It was thrown around so much I could've swore we already have one, but I can't find anything.

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Also, within the "Project Settings" it would be nice if searching for "command line parameters" would bring up the "Main Run Args" in settings so it could be found quicker. If "command line parameters" is what you're used to calling them, googilng it won't bring up "Main Run Args" -- or at least it didn't for me. Took a long time to find it.

We can probably solve this by using some sort of aliasing or keyword system for project and editor settings, but that's also a separate problem for a separate proposal.

[Calinou]

main_run_args only applies when running the project from the editor – it won't apply to an exported project. This is why it's in the Editor section of the Project Settings.

I'm not sure if we can find any better name for the Editor section (other than Editor Only, which sounds a bit uncanny to me).

I wouldn't rename Editor Settings to Global Settings, because a lot of third-party documentation refers to the Editor Settings. In addition, in the engine source code, we have the GLOBAL_GET macro which refers to project settings. Before Godot 3.0, the ProjectSettings singleton was called Globals.

[BenMcLean]

I wouldn't rename Editor Settings to Global Settings, because a lot of third-party documentation refers to the Editor Settings.

The idea here would be that this would go into a major update like 4.0, which would be at a point where this would be nowhere near the biggest change third party documentation needs to make.

[Calinou]

The idea here would be that this would go into a major update like 4.0, which would be at a point where this would be nowhere near the biggest change third party documentation needs to make.

We can't update third-party documentation ourselves – even more so when it's locked (such as Reddit posts and comments more than 6 months old).

[BenMcLean]

We can't update third-party documentation ourselves – even more so when it's locked (such as Reddit posts and comments more than 6 months old).

What's your point? I don't see the relevance of this comment.

[mhilbrunner]

We discussed this in today's PR meeting.
#1480 may be a way to solve this globally.

We should also think about adding alias functionality to settings search to improve that for things like "Command Line Arguments".

[Calinou]

Closing in favor of #1480, which is a different solution to this problem. godotengine/godot#53229 was rejected, so this proposal is also considered rejected.