Fwd: GSoC project idea

[Thomas Hruska]

On 4/3/2013 5:52 AM, ABHINAV MISRA wrote:
> [image: Inline image 1]Hi Mark,
>     Thank you for getting back to me. The major benefits of this design is
> that at present we have two windows for pidgin,i.e. one the buddy list and
> the other for chat conversation. This design will club those and make it
> one unit. Moreover, it will be implementing easy search for buddies and
> also for conversation. They just need to type above the respective
> categories to search. So this will give more easy access to search than
> present design. Secondly, there is no point in having two windows just for
> the same task. If u want to send message to some other person from the list
> then we need to see the buddy list again. In my design that wont be needed,
> user will have an option, whether he  wants to open another tab for the new
> conversation or not ( attached a new picture showing it). The status will
> be seen on the title bar. Like if I am chatting to a person from my gtalk
> list, then my Gtalk status will be shown on the title bar, if I switch to
> facebook friend then that particular status will be shown.
>    To prove my point further and add weight to it , I would like you to
> please refer to the Gmail "compose" option now. Earlier a new window use to
> open and then we wrote our mail there but now the design is much more
> appealing. My design is very compact, no extra detailing anywhere , just a
> window where you can manage all your accounts with full efficiency.
> Thinking all this I proposed this design.  This way we can give a very new
> touch to Pidgin. Please correct me if I am wrong anywhere.
>
> Thanking you,
>
> Regards,
> Abhinav Misra
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 10:40 AM, Mark Doliner <mark at kingant.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi Abhinav Misra!  Thank you for your interest.  I'm curious... why do
>> you feel your design is more user-friendly and more appealing than the
>> current design?  I think I prefer the current design... though that
>> may be just because I'm used to it.  Your design doesn't seem bad to
>> me, but I imagine there would be some resistance from our users to a
>> change of this magnitude.  And so I guess I'm wondering what the major
>> benefits are of the redesigned layout.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Mark

A lot of people like having one tall, narrow window for the buddy list 
to make it easier to see who is online at a glance.  The chat window is 
clean as it is (for the most part).  This redesign would end that and 
"clutter" up the chat window.  There would be a lot of people who would 
balk.  I, for one, rarely initiate chats, so I could care less about the 
buddy list.

If you are going to redesign anything, I'd much rather see improvements 
in multi-chat (e.g IRC and Jabber sessions).  I bounce between several 
multi-chat sessions and have to keep up with all the chatter (including 
automated bots that push change notifications into the channel). 
Figuring out where I left off in each window is difficult with Pidgin 
unless I wipe the history each time I get done catching up.  A 
bookmark-like system, especially for extended multi-chat sessions, would 
be a very welcome addition.

-- 
Thomas Hruska
CubicleSoft President

I've got great, time saving software that you might find useful.

http://cubiclesoft.com/