Let's answer the branding question on Win32

Kevin M Stange kevin at simguy.net
Sun Apr 8 04:56:18 EDT 2007


(Should I be emailing this to gaim-devel at lists.sf.net now?  Should we
establish devel at pidgin.im and start using it?)

I haven't been able to figure out if there's been consensus here, so
it's time to decide once and for all about Win32:

1) I don't like WinPidgin.  It looks weird and sounds stupid to me.
2) I like Pidgwin, but I think it's a bad idea.
3) We should call it Pidgin.

WinPidgin does not flow like WinGaim.  Pidgin on Windows is the same
product as Pidgin on Linux.  The additional code in MTN to make Win32
builds work is for the purpose of building a working binary on Windows
and hooking it into the Windows "DE" (as our GNOME code hooks into that
DE).  It still offers the same UI, the same functionality, the same
features, etc.  Pidgwin is cute, but the differentiation is artificial,
and it means we have to add additional strings to the source which are
tagged with #ifdef _WIN32 and adjust all translation accordingly.

If we didn't brand consistently within the client and referred to it
externally that way, it would just be confusing to users.  We can still
#ifdef the IRC channel in the about box like we do now, and bounce users
to it on demand.

Another point to make is that the Win32 builds are ours.  We make and
support them.  Alternate branding of the same product, such as in the
case of Firefox/"Bon Echo" is used to put third party builds out of the
realm of trademark infringement, and does not apply here.

So what I propose is:

1) Call it Pidgin.  If we need to distiguish it, refer to it as "Pidgin
for Windows" or "Windows Pidgin"
2) I've already registered #pidgin-win32.  With the blessing of cabal, I
will "activate" this channel and get #wingaim routed there.

Finally, I want to solicit some suggestions for the Win32 build
environment.  Originally, before the Core/UI split, everything was
organized around GAIM_TOP, and src/.  Then we introduced GAIM_LIB_* and
GAIM_GTK_* into the makefiles.  Right now, we can use PIDGIN_* and
PURPLE_*, but there's still an issue with anything outside either scope.

The top of the source is still GAIM_TOP.  The makefiles refer to things
in the GAIM_* namespace, like GAIM_INSTALL_DIR, GAIM_VERSION,
GAIM_WIN32_MAKEFILE, GAIM_PO_TOP.  What should I be replacing GAIM with?

Obviously GAIM_TOP can't be renamed to PIDGIN_TOP because it will
conflict with PIDGIN_TOP pointing to /pidgin.

Once I figure that out, I'll run through the Makefiles and eliminate the
GAIM references.

Kevin

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