[tor-talk] Question about less frequently used function of Tor Browser

[m.ajiao at tuta.io]

Hello!

There are some less frequently used functions in Tor Browser, such as the developer tools, developer toolbar, customization and Sync.

Some are very useful. I can use the F12 developer tools to remove unwanted elements that are supposed to be removed only if you enable JavaScript. Sometimes I use the developer toolbar to take screenshots of a page. They are just not used frequently because we don't primarily use Tor Browser to write websites.

I noticed that these developer tools saves its own states and history.
In normal Firefox. F12 developer tools will pop up a warning dialog when you first use Ctrl-V to paste code snippet into it. After you type "allow pasting" the dialog is gone forever.
In normal Firefox, F12 developer tools also saves history. If you press UP arrow key, you get what you have typed in the console yesterday.

✓ Good news: Tor Browser F12 console does not save history. If you click "New Identity" You can still browse your input history in the F12 console, but the history is gone after you close Tor Browser completely.
？ It did not ask me to type "allow pasting" when I use Ctrl-V. I don't know if I have typed that in before, or was the Tor browser optimized for this.

ㄨ In Tor Browser, the Developer Toolbar (which you can use to take screenshots) saves its own state and it persists after you close and restart Tor Browser.
In normal Firefox, when you open the Developer Toolbar for the first time, you will see a tip dialog and a "Got it" button. From then on the tip dialog is gone forever. The same behavior is present in Tor Browser. I saw the tip dialog. I clicked "Got it". I closed and restarted Tor Browser, opened the Developer Toolbar again. Then I did not see the tip dialog.
✓ Good news: the Developer Toolbar does not save input history. (I can't see input history by pressing the UP arrow key)
☆ Isn't Tor Browser supposed to save as fewer "states" as possible?


Some other less frequently used functions also save their own states to the disk.

？ With Customization, you can rearrange the plugin icons. Modification to the user interface persists even after you close and restart Tor Browser. I don't know if it's an expected behavior or not.

？ If you go to [Alt key] -- View -- Sidebar and enable any of these sidebars, you can still see the sidebar shown on the left even after closed and restarted Tor Browser (if you don't close the sidebars). I don't know if this is expected or not.

？ The same with bookmark bar. I don't know if this is expected or not.

？ I think no one will use "Sign in to Sync" in Tor Browser, and it doesn't work because most of use have adjusted security settings and don't want to enable JavaScript.