[Pidgin] #4986: automatic chat input field resizing should be optional, regression from 2.3

[Pidgin]

#4986: automatic chat input field resizing should be optional, regression from 2.3
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  Reporter:  swbrown       |       Owner:                   
      Type:  enhancement   |      Status:  reopened         
  Priority:  minor         |   Milestone:                   
 Component:  pidgin (gtk)  |     Version:  2.4.0            
Resolution:                |    Keywords:  chat input resize
   Pending:  0             |  
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Comment (by ddm):

 Replying to [comment:184 deryni]:
 > Adding options for things which serve no purpose is not worth it,
 regardless of cost. I am still unconvinced that given a properly
 functional auto-resizing entry area there is any reason to need a manual
 resizing option.

 I'm yet another person who signed up for an account here specifically to
 complain about this misfeature.  I DO NOT LIKE AUTO RESIZING, AND I DO NOT
 WANT LIMITS OF ANY SORT ON MY TEXT INPUT AREA.  I can't emphasize this
 enough.  I want to have full control over the pane sizes of my
 conversation clients.  The application can't guess how I want to use it,
 and how big I want the panes depends very greatly on the size of my
 screen, who I'm chatting with, what information I want to convey to them,
 and what the situational context is.  In some situations, like at work
 where I have two giant heads to display my desktop, and fairly standard
 (for me that is) usage patterns, I'm able to set it to a particular size
 that works (fixed-width font, 100 colums wide, 6 lines tall) and leave it
 that way.  In other situations, particularly on my work laptop, which has
 a small screen, and where I typically have to run about 2 dozen
 applications simultaneously, I'm constantly fussing and fighting with the
 Pidgin conversation window to meet my needs for that moment.  Not having
 full control is simply UNACCEPTABLE.

 In creating this functionality, you, as the developers, are making a
 judgment about how you think I should want to use the client most likely
 based on your own usage, or based on some assumption that all IM users use
 IM the same way, which is obviously an incorrect assumption.  Based on
 that judgment, you're making a decision to place a limit on how I use the
 application, which a) never existed in the years of development history of
 the app, and b) which I, along with many users, clearly find distasteful.
 This change makes it impossible for me to use Pidgin in a way which is
 comfortable to me, and in a way that meets my needs.

 I've been a happy GAIM/pidgin user for years, but if this behavior isn't
 reverted, it will definitely serve as cause for me to look for a different
 client.

 > *Why* do you need manual control back?

 Why *WOULDN'T* we want it back?  To answer your question more directly:
 Because I don't want a minimum.  I don't want a maximum.  And I surely
 don't want my text input box to resize on me without me telling it to.  To
 be honest, I can't believe that it didn't occur to any of you guys that a
 lot of people would be upset by this change...

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4986#comment:208>
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