[Pidgin] #1516: Buddy details when possible

[Pidgin]

#1516: Buddy details when possible
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 Reporter:  mshancock     |       Type:  enhancement
   Status:  new           |   Priority:  minor      
Component:  pidgin (gtk)  |    Version:  2.0.1      
 Keywords:                |    Pending:  0          
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 There are times in the day when I have so many buddies online (e.g. midday
 on a weekday) that I prefer having buddy details off, in order to see a
 better overview of who's online. Other times (e.g. when I'm still working
 at 3am), I have so few buddies online that I prefer seeing details. It
 would be nice if Pidgin was smart about how many buddies I have in my list
 and had an option to automatically show me as much as it can.

 There are several levels for this request, from simple-to-implement to
 probably-unreasonable-but-would-be-pretty-cool. There are also a few
 approaches that I've thought of:
  1. Make the buddy list show details whenever it will fit in the current
 window. As soon as a buddy logs in that makes details not fit, switch to
 not showing details.
  1. Make the window resize to fit the buddy details, as long as that fits
 inside the available screen space (however that can be determined). If the
 screen space doesn't allow it, resolve it using the above strategy.
  1. Resize the buddy list to fit within the window boundaries (showing
 details if possible) and zoom as you move across buddies (à la Mac OS X's
 Dock-- though done correctly so the target size and position remains the
 same).
  1. A visualization that shows an overview of all your buddies and if
 they're logged in (e.g. in a corner of the window, show just the bubbles
 stacked on one another, separated by group -- use the same colours as the
 status and have each bubble be clickable/hoverable as in the actual list.
 This would essentially be a bar chart view of your buddies).

 There's a million other ways to provide this functionality, and all of the
 one's I've described would be easy to turn on/off or be combined to the
 user's preference.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/1516>
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