I just downloaded pidgin portable 2.4.1, and it would appear that the text input area of chat/IM windows can no longer be resized. Is there a way to force the ability to manually resize this window? I understand that it auto-resizes, but I much prefer the ability to change the size myself...
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Short version: No.
Middle version: http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/5296
Long version: Mailing list archives and http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4986 . If you have a real reason to need to do this that hasn't been mentioned already we would like to hear it, but we do not need any more people saying "yeah, me too" or "I agree with idea X".
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Oh, I've already learned my lesson with Pidgin - unless you see a specific reason that YOU deem worthy, you're unlikely to add a feature (or put back a feature that was inexplicably removed).
My reason is that visually it is much easier to have a larger text input area. Two lines is simply too small, especially on high-resolution displays.
You had no real reason to remove the ability to resize the window, except that you wanted to. It wasn't broken. It wasn't a bug. It wasn't a major usability issue. Make the input area a MINIMUM of two lines, if the problem was people making it too short and losing the window entirely, but don't just arbitrarily remove features because *you* decided they weren't useful.
This goes back to the change implemented in 2.2 or 2.3, where all the formatting buttons were stuck in a menu with a single toolbar button in a chat window. People bitched, and you said over and over "I don't see why you need the buttons; I like it this way; why do you need it changed?" and finally (and I'm still trying to figure out why), you realized that users actually *wanted* the ability to have all the buttons visible, so you put that option back into the application.
Pidgin used to be a great application, but ever since about 2.1, it's gone steadily downhill as more and more options and features are being removed for no justifiable reason. Unfortunately, there are no other multiprotocol IM/chat clients that are worth using, so I'm stuck using Pidgin.
I just hope that at some point down the line, you might actually be willing to listen to your users and quit being so stubborn when multiple people request that you put BACK a feature that was removed for no truly justifiable reason.
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If you have a real reason to need to do this that hasn't been mentioned already we would like to hear it, but we do not need any more people saying "yeah, me too" or "I agree with idea X".
Do you realize how problematic this attitude is? Let's say you have 1000 users. You remove a feature, and five of those users give "different reasons" why you want that feature added back. That's only five users, right? But let's say that another 495 users chime in with "hey! I want this feature back too, and I want it back for a reason that's already been mentioned!" Suddenly, half your users are clamoring to have that feature put back. Maybe a month later, another 100 people will show up and request the feature be reimplemented.
Just because a "new reason" isn't given to have a feature reimplemented isn't reason to say "we're going to ignore you when you say you want this feature, because you're just saying the same thing everyone else is saying".
Apparently, you DO need more people saying "yeah, me too" and "I agree with idea X", because the quantity of users who are taking the time to TELL you they agree with the others isn't enough for you to man up and realize that you have yet again removed a feature that many people want and use.
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You do realize I said "any more users" not "any", right? Quantity isn't going to matter anymore. Unless you somehow managed to actively find out that some overwhelming majority of pidgin users were negatively affected by this change (in ways more important than simple knee-jerk dislike) more "me too" responses will never matter. Good luck doing that (pidgin has well more than 1000 users as best we can tell).
For the record (I'm answering your other post here now for a second) the manual resizing actually was broken. In that it prevented automatic resizing from working at all. But don't let the fact that we mentioned that in both the mailing list discussions and the ticket I pointed you at dissuade you from not believing or noticing it. The problem was never people shrinking the window and losing anything, but again thanks for assuming you understand the problems that the majority of pidgin users have better than we do.
Actually, there wasn't anything like a huge clamor over the formatting toolbar change (much smaller than this clamor for example, and even this one isn't huge). And I likewise have no idea why the group/ungroup option was added back.
Do you not see the problems inherent in claiming that we are not allowed to remove features when we don't have a "truly justifiable reason[s]" to do it while simultaneously demanding that we add features back when they have "no truly justifiable reason"?
Oh, one last thing, the number of options and features removed since "about 2.1" is really not as large as you might think. Only a handful of noticable removals have been made, and just about all of them remain doable via plugins, so in truth most haven't been removed at all. If you disagree I'd love to see your list of things.
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Just a polite observation on what I think is a usability issue resulting from the "auto-resizing" text entry area:
Once you get past 2 lines, the box auto-resizes, and the 'bar' between the dialog area and the text entry area "jumps" up suddenly.
Now, if - like me (and probably a lot of people) - you're not a very good typist, you're mostly looking down at the keyboard, and not at the text entry area.
So, as the 'bar' jumps up, you notice it peripherally as "some sort of event in the Pidgin window" and the most likely event in a Pidgin window is that the other person has sent a message.
So you stop typing, look up to see what they've sent, only then to work out that what actually happened was that your text wrapped onto a new line and the 'bar' jumped up suddenly.
If you frequently type IM messages of >2 lines (as I, and I would guess a lot of people, do), it therefore happens pretty much every time you use Pidgin, which is both distracting and irritating.
You'd think, perhaps, you'd get used to it, but my experience - and I use Pidgin all day in my job, as I am a remote-worker - is that you simply don't. And I think the reason for that is the rule "sudden event in Pidgin window = other person has sent a message" is a very strong one, and one that's reinforced all the time by, well, people sending you messages.
So, three main options occur to me:
1. Have an option to allow people to manually adjust the text entry area to suit.
2. Have a config setting that sets the default height of the text entry area - eg, to 2, 3, 4 or 5 lines - and then have it "auto-resize" when in use based on that default.
3. "Smooth auto-resize" the text entry area, so that it doesn't jump suddenly, which might well reduce the distraction.
Best regards
Spider
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I was thinking I needed to update to version 2,4 since I am a couple of versions back.
However, is this thread saying that the "conversation box" with the bottom area to type and the top area showing what has already been conversed can no longer be manually sized?
If this is correct, I will not update to 2.4 so I would like to know in advance.
Thanks!
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I just downloaded pidgin portable 2.4.1, and it would appear that the text input area of chat/IM windows can no longer be resized. Is there a way to force the ability to manually resize this window? I understand that it auto-resizes, but I much prefer the ability to change the size myself...
Short version: No.
Middle version: http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/5296
Long version: Mailing list archives and http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4986 . If you have a real reason to need to do this that hasn't been mentioned already we would like to hear it, but we do not need any more people saying "yeah, me too" or "I agree with idea X".
Oh, I've already learned my lesson with Pidgin - unless you see a specific reason that YOU deem worthy, you're unlikely to add a feature (or put back a feature that was inexplicably removed).
My reason is that visually it is much easier to have a larger text input area. Two lines is simply too small, especially on high-resolution displays.
You had no real reason to remove the ability to resize the window, except that you wanted to. It wasn't broken. It wasn't a bug. It wasn't a major usability issue. Make the input area a MINIMUM of two lines, if the problem was people making it too short and losing the window entirely, but don't just arbitrarily remove features because *you* decided they weren't useful.
This goes back to the change implemented in 2.2 or 2.3, where all the formatting buttons were stuck in a menu with a single toolbar button in a chat window. People bitched, and you said over and over "I don't see why you need the buttons; I like it this way; why do you need it changed?" and finally (and I'm still trying to figure out why), you realized that users actually *wanted* the ability to have all the buttons visible, so you put that option back into the application.
Pidgin used to be a great application, but ever since about 2.1, it's gone steadily downhill as more and more options and features are being removed for no justifiable reason. Unfortunately, there are no other multiprotocol IM/chat clients that are worth using, so I'm stuck using Pidgin.
I just hope that at some point down the line, you might actually be willing to listen to your users and quit being so stubborn when multiple people request that you put BACK a feature that was removed for no truly justifiable reason.
Also, you said this:
If you have a real reason to need to do this that hasn't been mentioned already we would like to hear it, but we do not need any more people saying "yeah, me too" or "I agree with idea X".
Do you realize how problematic this attitude is? Let's say you have 1000 users. You remove a feature, and five of those users give "different reasons" why you want that feature added back. That's only five users, right? But let's say that another 495 users chime in with "hey! I want this feature back too, and I want it back for a reason that's already been mentioned!" Suddenly, half your users are clamoring to have that feature put back. Maybe a month later, another 100 people will show up and request the feature be reimplemented.
Just because a "new reason" isn't given to have a feature reimplemented isn't reason to say "we're going to ignore you when you say you want this feature, because you're just saying the same thing everyone else is saying".
Apparently, you DO need more people saying "yeah, me too" and "I agree with idea X", because the quantity of users who are taking the time to TELL you they agree with the others isn't enough for you to man up and realize that you have yet again removed a feature that many people want and use.
You do realize I said "any more users" not "any", right? Quantity isn't going to matter anymore. Unless you somehow managed to actively find out that some overwhelming majority of pidgin users were negatively affected by this change (in ways more important than simple knee-jerk dislike) more "me too" responses will never matter. Good luck doing that (pidgin has well more than 1000 users as best we can tell).
For the record (I'm answering your other post here now for a second) the manual resizing actually was broken. In that it prevented automatic resizing from working at all. But don't let the fact that we mentioned that in both the mailing list discussions and the ticket I pointed you at dissuade you from not believing or noticing it. The problem was never people shrinking the window and losing anything, but again thanks for assuming you understand the problems that the majority of pidgin users have better than we do.
Actually, there wasn't anything like a huge clamor over the formatting toolbar change (much smaller than this clamor for example, and even this one isn't huge). And I likewise have no idea why the group/ungroup option was added back.
Do you not see the problems inherent in claiming that we are not allowed to remove features when we don't have a "truly justifiable reason[s]" to do it while simultaneously demanding that we add features back when they have "no truly justifiable reason"?
Oh, one last thing, the number of options and features removed since "about 2.1" is really not as large as you might think. Only a handful of noticable removals have been made, and just about all of them remain doable via plugins, so in truth most haven't been removed at all. If you disagree I'd love to see your list of things.
Hi deryni9
Just a polite observation on what I think is a usability issue resulting from the "auto-resizing" text entry area:
Once you get past 2 lines, the box auto-resizes, and the 'bar' between the dialog area and the text entry area "jumps" up suddenly.
Now, if - like me (and probably a lot of people) - you're not a very good typist, you're mostly looking down at the keyboard, and not at the text entry area.
So, as the 'bar' jumps up, you notice it peripherally as "some sort of event in the Pidgin window" and the most likely event in a Pidgin window is that the other person has sent a message.
So you stop typing, look up to see what they've sent, only then to work out that what actually happened was that your text wrapped onto a new line and the 'bar' jumped up suddenly.
If you frequently type IM messages of >2 lines (as I, and I would guess a lot of people, do), it therefore happens pretty much every time you use Pidgin, which is both distracting and irritating.
You'd think, perhaps, you'd get used to it, but my experience - and I use Pidgin all day in my job, as I am a remote-worker - is that you simply don't. And I think the reason for that is the rule "sudden event in Pidgin window = other person has sent a message" is a very strong one, and one that's reinforced all the time by, well, people sending you messages.
So, three main options occur to me:
1. Have an option to allow people to manually adjust the text entry area to suit.
2. Have a config setting that sets the default height of the text entry area - eg, to 2, 3, 4 or 5 lines - and then have it "auto-resize" when in use based on that default.
3. "Smooth auto-resize" the text entry area, so that it doesn't jump suddenly, which might well reduce the distraction.
Best regards
Spider
I was thinking I needed to update to version 2,4 since I am a couple of versions back.
However, is this thread saying that the "conversation box" with the bottom area to type and the top area showing what has already been conversed can no longer be manually sized?
If this is correct, I will not update to 2.4 so I would like to know in advance.
Thanks!