msn-pecan now has direct connection support (fast file transfers)

[Richard Laager]

On Wed, 2008-01-02 at 16:07 -0600, Felipe Contreras wrote:
> So, if I want to set my personal message to 'party friday' properly
> I'd have to add a new status, set the message to that, and specify
> that I want to keep it. Save and use it.
> 
> Later on, I set my status to 'in a meeting', on my XMPP account I
> would still have 'party friday'.

Let me try this again with a series of examples:

My status is "Available" with no message at the moment. I want to set my
personal status message to say, "I just won the lottery."

I pick Available again to get the message box back. I type "I just won
the lottery." I'm done: My status is now Available with that message.

Then, I go to cash the lottery check, so I set my status to a custom "Be
Right Back" status that I already have. (With my proposed change,) I
have a blank message on that custom status and "use the existing
message" checked. My status becomes "Be Right Back" on MSN and "Away" on
XMPP. My message is still "I just won the lottery."

I come back and then go into a meeting about hiring my successor. I
activate my existing "In a Meeting" status. It has a message of "I'm in
a meeting. Please call the helpdesk at 111-222-3333 for urgent issues."
and my proposed "use existing message" unchecked. My status at this
point becomes "Not at Desk" on Yahoo, "Busy" on MSN, "Do Not Disturb" on
XMPP, etc. (whatever I have set) and uses my helpdesk message.

I come back and pick my "won the lottery" status out of the recent
transient status list. As a transient status with a message, it would
take over the message and I'd be back to Available with "I just won the
lottery."

I sign out, come home and sign back in. My status is saved, as per the
existing preference to that effect. So now I'm again Available with "I
just won the lottery."

I go out to party it up with friends to burn some of my new-found money,
so I set my status to Away. My status message stays, "I just won the
lottery.", which is highlighted. If I want that to stay, I do nothing
and it sets after the timeout. If I want to change it, I type, "Party at
Bob's Bar, drinks on me!" and walk out the door.


Again, my proposed changes are to have the message preserved across
status changes by default, but highlight it (which only matters during
the timeout phase anyway, as after that, the edit box goes away) so it's
easy to delete/change. For custom statuses, we want a checkbox to say to
Pidgin, "This message should override."

I don't think this adds an unreasonable amount of complexity. If people
are changing their message to something new with the new status, it's
EXACTLY the same operations. They pick the status and then type. If
they're keeping a message, it's far less work (they don't have to
re-type it at all). If they're re-using an existing message over and
over, they'll have a saved status (transient if not custom) for that,
which would automatically take over.

If anyone disagrees with this, please provide a use case.

> XMPP users expect the status message to be something that describes
> the current status. Sleeping, in a meeting, be right back, can't type
> now, grabbing food, palying wow, hacking, etc.
> 
> MSN users expect the personal message to be whatever the contact wants
> to say. I'm sick, happy new year, muse's concert was amazing, happy
> b-day chris, couch potato mode.
> 
> I don't think mixing the two is a good idea, they are not the same
> thing with different name.

I disagree that these are all that separate. For example, how is "I'm
sick" different than "can't type now"? I will agree that "Happy New
Year" is not an action or a state, but I don't think it needs a
different UI. If you think it does, please provide a use case that would
be easier than my proposal above.

Richard
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