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

[Chris Forsythe]

I concur. If you want our opinions (advice) on things, we'd gladly give 
them, but I think Augie hit the nail on the head here.

Chris

Augie Fackler wrote:

> 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
>>>