libpurple theme support improvements

[Etan Reisner]

I would like to state, for the record, that pidgin is perfectly willing
and able to particpate in accepted specifications (very *very* few things
are standards so avoiding the term is a good idea in general) and play
well with others. That being said, we are *not* willing to be brow-beaten
into following said specifications and are not going to support
specifications we do not agree with. We likewise have no vested interest
in whether the current round of specifications are good specifications if
we have no interest in their outcome.

Specifically, as in this case, I believe I speak for many (if not most) of
the pidgin developers when I say that we have no particular vested
interest in the goal of this XDG sound theme spec. pidgin has never been
tied to a specific desktop environment and will never become so tied,
pidgin has no direct expectations of any desktop environment even
existing. We don't expect a taskbar, we don't expect a notification area,
I even routinely remind people that we can't even depend on windows having
titlebars.

So expecting us to depend on a library that is specifically designed for
use in only a very small handful of possible environments (those using the
current set of mainstream desktop environments or Windows) and accusing us
of in all ways being poor citizens for not supporting a specification
which is not even a year old and a library which is half as old as the
specification is, at best, less than charitable and at worst an active
attempt to be hostile.

As has been mentioned previously by other people in this thread, we are by
no means unwilling to consider this specification without investingating
it and further the SoC sound work was specifically done so as to make
plugging in various sound themes doable (to exactly cover cases like
this where specifications either evolve, are born, or are ones we would
rather not support ourselves).

I would very much appreciate if we could let this thread end now, unless
people wish to further discuss the *merits* of the sound theme spec
(ideally specifically as it relates to pidgin). Discussions which may
perhaps end up being worth moving over to the appropriate XDG list for any
further discussion which may be needed.

    -Etan