[Adium-devl] MSNp15 (libpurple im.pidgin.pidgin) in Adium 1.3.x

[Felipe Contreras]

On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 3:23 AM, Evan Schoenberg <evan.s at dreskin.net> wrote:
>
> On Sep 8, 2008, at 6:30 PM, Felipe Contreras wrote:
>
> I don't like to compare the features, partly because I think msn-pecan
> has better foundations, but also because it has less features :P
>
> The next feature of msn-pecan is something that msnp15 doesn't have;
> fast (direct) file transfers, there's partial code in the 'next'
> branch, but my bet is that it will take some time.
>
> The lack of offline messaging seems to be a major problem, especially since
> it also means that we can't communicate with invisible users.

That indeed is what I would have thought, I don't think it's hard to
implement, but the voice of the people says otherwise:
http://code.google.com/p/msn-pecan/issues/list

Fast file transfers seems to be more important.

> Sure, msn-pecan has a 'long' standing issue with user displays, but I
> don't think that has a high priority. Unlike Pidgin guys, I consider
> the priorities (try to sort their bug reports by priority). So I've
> left the cvr stuff (file transfers, emotions and user displays) mostly
> untouched, it definitely needs a redesign, but that's not high
> priority... only bug-fixes, which I do work on.
>
> The user display picture issue is a significant regression from msnp9.  I
> would therefore classify it as a major bug.
> You may not want to compare msn-pecan and msnp15 on 'features,' but the fact
> of the matter is that these two significant aspects of the messaging
> experience don't work in msn-pecan and do work in its philosophical
> competitor, msnp15.  Most users aren't going to experience the edge case
> crashes, but all will experience these lacks.  I completely agree that
> ultimately a focus on stability is far more important than a breadth-first
> approach to implementing features which turn out to be buggy...
> ...but we're getting a ton of support requests, in every existing channel;
> in fact, the display pictures bug in MSN is by my informal measurement the
> most reported problem in Adium 1.3.  That counts for a lot in my book.

Yes, but my point is that if you move to msnp15 you will have crashes
on login, and people not being able to connect at all. Let's face it,
here is the list of priorities:

1) IM support: send, receive
2) Status support; idle, busy, etc.
3) Nickname, personal message
4) Contactlist support; Add, remove, move, block, etc.
5) Offline messaging
6) User display
7) Emoticons
8) File transfers

I am not sure how many people are experiencing issues with 6) in
msn-pecan, but apparently it's not everyone. But in any case, are
people really expecting to use something that has more issues with 1)
4) and 5) ? That is egocentric in my opinion... because some other
people won't be even able to use Adium at all, maybe some people have
never been able to use Adium for msn until now.

In any case, I *am* working on fixing the issues with 6) as bugfixes,
if I hadn't considered Adium users I would simply work on fast file
transfers and other needed (IMO) redesigns, also Empathy support.

Code-quality has direct implications on the user-experience
eventually, I would suggest to stop thinking on the minority of users
whining temporarily, and think about the majority of users happy with
a stable, efficient, functional application. Something you will never
get if you use Pidgin's msn code.

-- 
Felipe Contreras