External LibGNT

[Gary Kramlich]

Greetings Programs,

As some of you may know, I have wanted to break the repository up for
quite some time.  After much hard work, QuLogic (aka Elliott) has
gotten LibGNT to that point.  I am nearly ready to merge a pull
request[1] into the release-2.x.y branch of Pidgin, that will make the
Pidgin build require an external LibGNT[2].  This was done on the
default branch quite some time ago, and QuLogic has been very careful
to give everyone a reasonable transition path.  Please note that
LibGNT has both release-2.x.y and default branches mirroring those in
the Pidgin repository.

2.14.0 will be the final 2.x.y release of LibGNT, this is mostly
because not much has been happening on that side of the project for
quite some time.  That said, the default branch for LibGNT is version
3.0 and could use your help!  QuLogic has already hidden all the
structures and moved everything to GObject define/declare macros, but
there's lots of things like GObject properties that could be used.  If
you're interested in helping, please let us know and we can expand on
the things that need to be done.

Documentation for migrating between versions of LibGNT for
developers/hackers can be found on the new Pidgin docs site[3].

Why did I want to split LibGNT into its own repository?  The library
has been hiding in our tree for well over a decade, ever since Sadrul
originally wrote it as a Summer of Code project, and nothing uses it
because nobody knows it exists.  It's a useful project that other
applications could use to build terminal-based interfaces, and it
doesn't get a chance to shine in that regard.  Splitting the library
into its own repository and releasing it as a separate project gives
it a chance to stand alone and build a community of its own.

Additionally, splitting LibGNT out of our tree will make it available
to everyone, as it will become its own package and not hide in
Pidgin/Finch packages.

[1] https://bitbucket.org/pidgin/main/pull-requests/489
[2] https://bitbucket.org/pidgin/libgnt
[3] https://docs.pidgin.im/libgnt/latest/migrating.html

Thanks,

--
Gary Kramlich <grim at reaperworld.com>