Re: New IRC account widget

Mikael Hallendal wrote:
> 26 jan 2007 kl. 00.31 skrev Trond Danielsen:
> 
> Hi,
> 
>> 2007/1/25, Aredridel <[email protected]>:
>>> On Thu, 2007-01-25 at 21:44 +0100, Guillaume Desmottes wrote:
>>> > Hello
>>> >
>>> > As announced, I'm trying to give some love to IRC support in
>>> Gossip. I'm
>>> > writing a new configuration widget for IRC accounts.
>>> > You can see what it look like on
>>> > http://cass.no-ip.com/~cassidy/files/brol/gossip-irc-1.png
>>> >
>>> > I designed this UI using my previous experience in xchat-gnome and
>>> > trying to keep it as simple as possible. Most of users just want to
>>> > "connect on FreeNode" and don't care about servers and other technical
>>> > stuffs. That's why I put these in a separate dialog.
>>>
>>>
>>> Wow, that looks nice. I keep wanting to get Gossip to connect (whether
>>> via a suitable MUC-IRC bridge or via Telepathy) to my IRC server, so I
>>> can use just one app for IM.
>>>
>>> Aria
> 
> The two reasons you mention below are the exact two reasons why Gossip
> was started in the first place. Me and Richard was tired of IM clients
> being two complex (existing jabber clients, IRC, etc.) or trying to
> solve it all (Gaim).

An I agree with this to some extent. I don't want oodles of features
coming out of Gossip's ears, I just want common usage available for my
communication requirements. Those tend towards IRC, MSN and Jabber. All
I need from those protocols is the ability to talk to my contacts, I
don't need any bells and whistles. With Telepathy, I don't want to see
the interface change much at all, because at the end of the day,
(depending on protocol) all you really end up doing is sending messages,
chatting with VoIP or using video. The backend really makes no
difference to me, I just want a clean interface where I can do this to
my contacts and the underlying protocol matters not. So it is in my
interests (personally) to keep the interface similar to how it is now
within reason.

>> Hmm... I am just a humble user, but I still wanted to share the reason
>> why I am using Gossip and not any other instant messaging program.
>> Reason number one is the clean design and highly usable interface of
>> Gossip that is specially made for Jabber. Gossip follows the UNIX
>> philosophy of creating programs that does one thing, and does is well.
>> Other programs, like Gaim, tries to be everything, and therefore fails
>> to be good at anything.
> 
> I tend to agree to this and I'm not overly fond of Gossips current
> tendency to move towards Gaim (in functionality and complexity).
> 
> On the proposed UI, I think it's too complex for Gossip and we should
> drop the setting up of "Networks" and only have a way to specify which
> server to use (removing the extra dialog).

I would normally agree with you on this, but I have been caught short
where I couldn't connect to IRC and one of the secondary servers has
actually been available. If it was down to me, I wouldn't do it, but
since Guillaume is volunteering to do the work and has experience here I
am inclined to listen and go with it. What do others think?

-- 
Regards,
Martyn