[Pidgin] #1888: Optionally start pidgin minimized

[Pidgin]

#1888: Optionally start pidgin minimized
-------------------------+--------------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  Tim.         |        Owner:              
     Type:  enhancement  |       Status:  new         
Milestone:               |    Component:  pidgin (gtk)
  Version:  2.0.2        |   Resolution:              
 Keywords:  minimize     |  
-------------------------+--------------------------------------------------

Comment(by deryni):

 Creak: I don't use Gnome, nor even have it installed. My desktop
 environment does not have a taskbar, only occasionally have a notification
 area, and does not minimize windows. So, no, I can't easily test this
 myself.

 pidgin isn't preventing anything from crashes, it isn't (specifically)
 protecting against crashes. What it is attempting to do is ensure that the
 user is always able to reach the buddy list window. This is not something
 I think anyone has any problems with in theory. It is merely the current
 problem that dawg (and a number of other people) are having that is the
 issue.

 dawg: I still do not understand your answer to my question. When the
 notification area is entirely removed while applications are minimized to
 it how do you get to the main windows of those applications? Could you
 please explain what two clicks are necessary for this for most of the
 applications? Are you suggesting that most applications sprout taskbar
 buttons when the notification area goes away? Are you suggesting that most
 applications are run-once applications and that thus running them again
 brings them to the front? What exactly? Keeping in mind that until
 recently pidgin had no run-once protection built in and that running more
 than one copy of pidgin at a time is a perfectly reasonable thing to do
 (so that causing further runnings of pidgin to focus the existing buddy
 list window is not always reasonable).

 As an example of what I am looking for the answers for pidgin are that
 when the notification area disappears pidgin makes sure that the buddy
 list window is made visible so that it will appear on the desktop and in
 any window list taskbars that happen to exist. It does this because
 without that there would be no way to cause the buddy list window to
 reappear (barring the more-or-less recent introduction of code which
 detects instances of pidgin that are already running and requests that the
 existing instance display itself).

 And yes, the notification area applet is entirely unrelated to pidgin. The
 notification area does not depend on pidgin, or in any real way even know
 that pidgin is pidgin and pidgin most certainly doesn't depend on the
 notification area or really know which of the myriad notification area
 applications are running.

 pidgin does in fact depend on an X server being running, and does depend
 on your X session not crashing out, it does not depend on your specific
 window manager, or any window manager for that matter (it would run
 perfectly well on a naked X session, though interacting with the multiple
 windows would be a nightmare).

 As I indicated before I run pidgin perfectly well in an environment
 without a taskbar, without a menu system, without desktop integration, and
 without a notification area. The specific interaction between applications
 and notification areas is greater than the specific interaction between
 applications and window listing taskbars.

 There is nothing that can be done when applications that pidgin depends on
 disappear (X, GTK+, etc.), there is plenty that can be done when
 applications that pidgin interacts with disappear (the notification area,
 the window manager in general, a sound service, etc.). This is a
 distinction that matters.

 I will say once again for the record, I do not like the fact that this
 protection causes you problems, I would very much like for it to be fixed,
 but I do not for a single instant believe that removing the protection is
 the right solution.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/1888#comment:43>
Pidgin <http://pidgin.im>
Pidgin