Re: [Gaim-devel] tabs

[Ethan B. <ebl...@cs...>]

Richard Hoskins spake unto us the following wisdom:
> Perhaps interface changes can be discussed on this list as well.  That
> doesn't seem to be happening, and when a user asks a question about
> them here, they get the stock "it's CVS.  Things change.  Deal with
> it.  Read the Logs."

Interface change discussion is, of course, welcome on this list.  The
sort of email which doesn't get a very good response is "I don't like
X, make it how it used to be", or "Is there an option to make X how it
used to be?".  A well thought out email presenting pros and cons might
make some progress ... a knee-jerk reaction to change will not.  Users
should keep in mind that we, as gaim developers, use gaim every day as
well.  What might initially seem like the end of the world (come on
people, it's a freaking IM client ... if it has something you don't
like in CVS for a week, the world will NOT end) may in fact be
something you decide you like if you just give it a chance for a few
days.

It's very off-putting to have every single design change second- and
third-guessed simply because a few (not by any means a majority!)
users are so afraid of change and progress that they cannot handle the
fact that, e.g., the tabs on their conversations are not optional for
a _few days_.  The developers of gaim work very hard to ensure that
they are, in fact, *improving* gaim.  Sometimes change is good.

Take the new buddy list, for another example.  When it was first
committed, people were like "oh, gah!  it's so huuuuge!  wah wah can i
have an option?".  I know of at least a few people, however, that
decided (in the two or three days, it wasn't that long!) they liked
the bigger buddy list with icons and kept it even after the option to
reduce it was readded.

I'm relatively new to this whole gaim development thing, so I came in
just before 0.59 was frozen and 0.60 went under heavy rewrite.  I have
seen in this past few months *countless* times where some feature X
gets ripped out for rewrite, or is only partially reimplemented (or
whatever), and people come literally flocking to #gaim (or, less
often, this mailing list) begging to have this feature
readded/removed/whatever so they can have the behavior they are used
to back.  Within HOURS or MINUTES.  It's awfully hard to develop, make
forward progress, and keep these people happy all at the same time.
Thus you get short answers like "no, shut up" both here and in #gaim
and in the SF forums.  If you're the 200th user to say "when are
conversation tabs going to be optional?", you can expect a terse and
perhaps somewhat unfriendly response.

I think it is also reasonable to expect people who wish to track gaim
CVS to keep at least somewhat on top of the changes going in.  If
something shows up that I didn't expect, I don't come crying to this
list or IRC first thing ... I peruse the recent CVS logs to try and
determine if it is intentional or a bug.  If it appears to be
intentional, I give it a few hours to shake itself out before I start
announcing that gaim has ended my life and career and exploded my
monitor.  If it seems to be a bug, I attempt to figure out why or get
a backtrace or take whatever action seems most appropriate.  Is it
unreasonable to expect this out of users?  Not at all, if they're
using gaim from CVS and not a released version.  As a matter of fact,
if a user comes to #gaim and says "gaim is dumping core, but I don't
know how to get a backtrace like the instructions say, can someone
help me?", I'm sure that user would get more or less immediate help.

But this has become tangential to the original discussion of UI
changes, so I'll let it rest.

> Which, of course, are after the fact.  (Still hoping the input on top
> is an April Fools change.)

Why?  What's wrong with it?  Would it be better if we moved the
toolbar from the bottom to the top, to bring it closer to the input
box?  Do you understand why randomly slamming the change without
providing any useful input is pointless?

Ethan

--=20
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will
look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the
blackest."
                -- Mahatma Gandhi