[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 mortan):

 @stuporglue
 >hbons, I agree with you that Pidgin is an instant message client and not
 a text editor, I think no one here is suggesting that it is. I think what
 people are trying to say is that as an instant message client can be very
 useful for real-time collaboration with other programmers.

 You are talking in a very friendly manner, but unfortunately you did not
 get what's wrong with hbons arguing.


 > To all the devs : We appreciate your many hours spent improving and
 developing Pidgin. I think  most of us who use it have found it to be the
 best tool for the job. One of the jobs a lot of us to with this tool
 relies on the feature of being able to see our whole message at once, and
 now that feature is gone. Even without that feature most of us will likely
 continue to rely on Pidgin, but we will be less efficient in our jobs.

 Of course I honor and estimate the enormous work the Pidgin developers
 have done, too. They do a great job but that's not the point of this
 ticket (even if it sounds rough).


 > If you think the number of people who have complained about this
 constitute even a majority of pidgin users (let alone a "huge majority")
 you haven't read enough of our comments on this (and other issues) yet.
 For reference, yesterday alone (Mar 30, 2008) pidgin was downloaded from
 sourceforge 11,264 times. So even if we assume that each person downloaded
 pidgin twice, and that no one gets pidgin from any location other than
 sourceforge (both of which assumptions are rather unlikely to be true)
 then for even a simple majority of people to have commented in the
 negative about this feature would require 2817 people to have commented on
 this; seeing as how your post was post 156 and mine will be 169 (as I'm
 writing this at least) I think we can agree that we aren't anywhere near
 majority yet (and that assumes that every post in this thread was a new
 person and that every post disliked it, neither of which is true).

 I disagree with your calculation about "how less users are indeed
 unsatisfied". To compare downloads with responses in this wiki is wrong. I
 think you agree with me that the majority of pidgin users are "normal
 users" from which a huge amount don't write here or even know the ticket
 system.
 Also there are many upset users who know the ticket system but for
 whatever reasons don't write here (in the Arch Linux forums is a threat
 about it, the first thing my friend asked me after he upgraded was "how do
 I make this horrible auto resize go away?").
 So, I think there are far more users than your calculation would suggest
 that don't agree with this change. To a better picture about the numbers I
 suggest to start a poll which is

 1) easy to fulfill


 2) reaches most of the pidgin users (i.e. visible on the pidgin.im front
 page)

 > No one has claimed that flexibility is bad or that no options at all is
 good, despite protestations to the contrary from our users.

 That are good news! I really thought this because of your arguing about
 options == code bloat and the following statement from you

 > The time to add a preference is when their is not one clearly correct
 behaviour and a reasonable compromise behaviour cannot be reached

 ... wrong! You've missed one important point. There is no general way how
 to do a thing right nor  a superior way for everyone (don't tell this
 GNOME developers, they would not understand this anyway). Different users
 have different habits which are by no way "wrong". So to come back to your
 statement where you really missed a point I would add:

   The time to add a preference is when their is not one clearly correct
 behavior and a reasonable compromise behavior cannot be reached or if it's
 an essential point where different users tends to use different ways to
 accomplish the same thing.

 > We still believe that a compromise is possible and are still actively
 attempting to reach it (without nearly as much help as we would like as
 those most vocally against the change seem to want to refuse to help us
 fix it)

 Please give an example in which way you (the developers) are attempting to
 reach a compromise. Denying user wishes here on the ticket system don't
 count for me.

 > If you have failed to see any of the constructive comments about why we
 think resizing is a better idea...

 Hm, maybe I missed the constructive comments and the pros you are talking
 about. I'll take a closer look.

 > ... and why we think we can fix it to work for everyone and where we
 repeatedly asked for help from the people who didn't like it in order to
 make it better

 Yeah, and you got _many_ response and even a working patch from nodashi!
 Am I wrong or did you put it down with the argument that _you_ think it is
 not the "right way" to handle the issue? Oh man...

 > ... than I submit to you that the problem is not that we didn't say or
 do that but that you chose not to understand it when we did.

 Again, wrong! Don't assume that if I don't agree with you I actually chose
 to not doing it just for whatever reason.

 > ... I submit that to you because I have on numerous occasions done
 exactly those things, and done them more than once.

 I understand you. It's exhausting to answer to the same "hot air"
 arguments all the time (no irony at all!). But to force others to do what
 you think is right is not ok.


 Please let some facts come into this discussion about what's wrong giving
 users the option to _chose_ what suits _their_ needs (not yours).

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4986#comment:178>
Pidgin <http://pidgin.im>
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