[Adium-devl] [Adium-feedback] I would like to port Adium to Windows XP

[Augie Fackler]

Not to rain on a parade here, but it strikes me that something like  
this, while valuable to many people, would basically be Adium in name  
only. I mean, sure, it'd have the "Adium dev seal of approval" but  
that's semi-meaningless in my mind. Why actually call it Adium? Why  
not just have a project which seeks to create something as good as  
Adium for Windows?

Augie


On Apr 25, 2006, at 8:33 PM, Geoffrey Elliott wrote:

> Christopher,
>
> Thank you for the quick response.  I really appreciate it.
>
> Two code bases is the only solution that I think makes any sense.   
> Either
> you end up spending your life building a cross-platform engine to  
> build the
> application (and thus no time on the actual application...) or you  
> build to
> the lowest common denomenator which, well, stinks.
>
> I'm not sure what your team feels would be the critical  
> requirements and
> concerns for a windows port.  Naturally I can think of a few concerns:
>
> 1. The Adium brand has tremendous goodwill associated with it (for  
> good
> reason).  Naturally a bad port could hurt the brand.  So I would  
> suggest
> that work on the port be kept quiet and whatever is released to  
> selected
> testers is released under a different code name.  Once substantially
> complete you guys could decide whether or not the product deserves  
> the Adium
> name.
>
> 2. Depending on how the project is organized the windows port could  
> defocus
> your team from the mainline product.  This is definitely not  
> desirable so as
> much as possible we would want to avoid that.  The easiest way is to
> minimize dependencies which happens quite naturally with two  
> separate code
> bases.
>
> Naturally, I would like to understand your requirements and  
> concerns.  And
> I'm completely willing to talk about my past projects/experience/ 
> etc. if you
> have any questions.
>
> - g
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher Forsythe [mailto:the_tick at brok3n.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 5:08 PM
> To: Geoffrey Elliott
> Cc: Adium Devs
> Subject: Re: [Adium-feedback] I would like to port Adium to Windows XP
>
> Hi Geo,
>
> This is honestly the first offer to port to Windows that I think we  
> can take
> seriously. If you are fine with 2 codebases, I think we can  
> definitely work
> with you on it. If you wouldn't mind expanding on any points you  
> may have
> left out, go ahead and do it now.
>
> Chris
>
>
> Geoffrey Elliott wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> My name is Geoffrey Elliott. I recently sold my small software  
>> company
>> to Google (we had a product similar to Konfabulator) and am looking
>> for a fun personal side project. I was previously a developer at
>> Microsoft for about 8 years working on projects as diverse as the
>> Windows Shell, Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer 5, and more.
>>
>> I absolutely love Adium on my Mac and I'm absolutely sad that it
>> doesn't exist on Windows. Of course, I have the means of making it
>> happen so instead of whining about it, I'd like to know if I can try.
>>
>> A couple of notes about more philosophy on porting:
>>
>> 1. It wouldn't' be straight port. Menu items/features would be  
>> changed
>> to make it more Windows-natural. Although the spirit of the
>> application would be preserved, I wouldn't want to make the same
>> mistake MSFT did when they released that terrible Office for the Mac
>> release that looked just like Windows.
>>
>> 2. I'm not interested in "portable" code. Although it might make  
>> sense
>> for some components to be portable, I don't believe in #ifdef WINDOWS
>> #ifdef MAC. I'm fine with two codebases.
>>
>> In any event, I'd be interested in exploring this idea with you  
>> folks.
>> Either way, GREAT JOB.
>>
>> - g
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Adium-devl mailing list
> Adium-devl at adiumx.com
> http://adiumx.com/mailman/listinfo/adium-devl_adiumx.com

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: PGP.sig
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 186 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://adium.im/pipermail/devel_adium.im/attachments/20060425/000df1ba/attachment.sig>