[Pidgin] #451: No Proticol icons

[Pidgin]

#451: No Proticol icons
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  Reporter:  AishaDracogryph  |       Owner:        
      Type:  defect           |      Status:  closed
  Priority:  minor            |   Milestone:        
 Component:  pidgin (gtk)     |     Version:  2.0   
Resolution:  wontfix          |    Keywords:  Icons 
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Comment (by lschiere):

 do not at all understand your attempt at justification?  Why do you need
 to know who you can send files to? is it not much more important to know
 if you can send a file or files to a *particular* person (yes that person
 will change from time to time, but in any one instance of needing to send
 a file, you need to send it to *one* particular person)?   If you want to
 argue that some protocols send more effectively than others, then use the
 submenu to pick the one you want.

 Why do you need to know who you can send offline messages to?  Is it not
 far more important to know if you can send an offline message to *this*
 person?  There is a bigger point here though.  If you have a contact, and
 if that contact is completely offline, and you double click it, Pidgin
 will *automatically* pick a protocol that can send offline messages if any
 can.  That is, you DO NOT HAVE TO KNOW what protocol is active, because it
 is ALREADY the right one (if any one exists that can).

 There is another key here: you are mistaken about how much has changed.
 The protocol icon only ever represented which buddy was "on top."
 However, in any version since contacts were first introduced, it has NEVER
 been the case that the "top" buddy was the only one you could interact
 with.  You ALWAYS have the ability to pick the particular buddy inside
 that contact you wish to reach from the right click menu.

 Having removed the protocol option forces you to think a little and
 realize how broken your behavior in previous versions must have been.
 From what I read, it seems that you previously thought that you could only
 send a file if the "top" buddy happen to be a protocol where file transfer
 would work.  You previously thought that you could only send a message if
 the "top" buddy happened to be a protocol where offline messages were
 supported.  You apparently never realized that all of this functionaity
 was *always* right at your finger tips, waiting for you to access it.  You
 apparently never realized this because the protocol icon caused you think
 of that *contact* as a single buddy.  It was not and is not.   At all
 times, then and now, you needed to right click to send files.  Nothing has
 changed except now the need to right click is apparent, and so you can
 actually now send files *more frequently* than before.

 As we continue to implement greater and greater subsets of the
 functionality of the various protocols, this will become increasingly
 true, as the number of protocols that do not support file transfer and
 offline messaging is reducing.

 The "option" you are talking about would be a decidedly complex option,
 leading to a 2 options controling 4 possible states.  That's a significant
 amount of additional code complexity for us to have to support.  Thus it
 takes a *significant* reason to justify it.  Not just a whim.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/451#comment:6>
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