GSoC Finch Improvements Update

[Mark Schneider]

I just wanted to give an update to the mailing list on the Finch
improvements and put out a request for feedback.

First, i wanted to explain my absence for the past couple weeks.  I
live in Cedar Rapids, IA, which if you weren't aware, is one of the
cities in the midwest region of the United States which has
experienced catastrophic flooding recently.  Now, i've been fortunate
to have only been inconvenienced by these events through road,
business, and utility closures, but i have been devoting my time to
help with the flood relief efforts instead of working on my Finch
tasks.  If you are also interested in helping, you can find more
information on these web sites:
http://flood2008.iowa.gov/
http://2008flood.org/

This puts me slightly behind my proposed GSoC schedule, but that
should be marginally offset by the fact that i was ahead of schedule a
couple weeks ago.  I have implemented an initial form of spell
checking for the GntEntry widget in libgnt.  It's algorithm is
somewhat inefficient, so i am in the process of rewriting it and will
hopefully complete that near the end of this week.  I welcome testers
to check out my code and give it a whirl.  It is in the
im.pidgin.soc.2008.finch branch.  If you just want to take a look at
some screen shots, i am also happy to provide you with some samples.

After i finish up the second iteration of the spell checking, i will
dive into implementing a tiling window manager for Finch.  Since there
is probably some interest in this from other Finch users, i would like
to ask any of you for suggestions on how this can be best done.  I
have been testing out tiling window managers for X, such as wmii,
ion3, and ratpoison, to get some ideas from them.  Personally, i've
enjoyed the wmii operation, but that may have something to do with my
love for vim and the similar default key bindings of wmii.  What have
your experiences been with tiling window managers and what would you
like to see done in finch?  After getting some feedback, i will write
up a more thorough proposal and follow up here on the list.

Regards,
Mark