[Tracker] [Pidgin] #46: remove debug dialog

[Pidgin]

#46: remove debug dialog
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  hbons         |       Owner:                             
      Type:  defect        |      Status:  closed                     
  Priority:  minor         |   Milestone:  Go public with Pidgin 2.0.0
 Component:  pidgin (gtk)  |     Version:  2.0                        
Resolution:  wontfix       |    Keywords:                             
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
Comment (by elb):

 1) We do not need to continuously log the debug window to disk -- not only
 does this raise a whole set of issues with when do we clear it, how do we
 remove it, etc. etc., but the debug output of Gaim is relatively
 voluminous, and a continuous debug stream over a long Gaim run would be
 come quite large.

 2) Recompiling Gaim is completely unacceptable, anything suggesting this
 is a non-starter.

 3) Even restarting Gaim to produce a debug window is a major pain; many
 times, users are in an active conversation with a developer, using Gaim,
 when they are asked to check the debug window for something.  Asking the
 user to restart Gaim in order to capture debug output not only slows down
 the process, but greatly increases the chances that the user won't be able
 to participate, either due to confusion or due to other activities which
 cause them to not wish to quit and restart Gaim.  (This really does happen
 a lot.)

 The bottom line is not that there are no good arguments for *keeping* the
 debug window, because there are, but that there is no good reason to
 remove it.  I have not seen a single reason other than "I have arbitrarily
 decided that it is ugly".  As to why other apps don't have debug windows
 ... I don't know, I think they should.  In fact, Firefox *does* have an
 error console, if not a proper debug window.  I don't know if nautilus
 does or not, as I don't use it.  Since Firefox's debug window did not
 bother you, would it be better if we renamed our debug window to "Error
 Console"?  That would really be a misnomer, as it also provides plenty of
 non-error debug output.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/46#comment:5>
Pidgin <http://pidgin.im>
Pidgin