Re: Hi y'all & menu re-organization (?)

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 17:34:47 -0500, Jason Lustig wrote
> I propose that we re-organize the menuitems into these menus:
> 
> Accounts (Sign On Account, Sign Off All Accounts, Add Account, Away, 
> Quit, etc)
> Chat (New IM, Join a Chat, etc.)
> Buddies (Show Offline Buddies, Add Buddy, Buddy Pounce, etc)
> Tools (Preferences, Privacy, File Transfers, etc.)
> Help (just regular help/about stuff)

I'm all about some better usability, but I'm not sure this is an improvement.
 We really can't have more than 3 menus.  People complain like banshees.  If
you can figure out a better arrangement than the current way using 3 menus,
more power to ya.

FYI, the Tools->Away menu will be gone in Gaim 2.0.0.  As will the buttons at
the bottom of the buddy list.  In Gaim 2.0.0, there will be a dropdown
menu/combobox at the bottom of the buddy list that lets you select your away
status.

> Also I have a question about gaim's core - is it possible to link it 
> into other things, like say mozilla? I am considering building 
> perhaps a standalone IM client built with the mozilla xul toolkit 
> using the gaim to talk to the different IM services... thoughts? How 
> could I pull this off? Thanks a lot, Jason

If you can access xul from C or C++ (is xul written in C++?) then this is
entirely possible.  Gaim itself is logically divided into two parts: the core
and the UI.  You would use the Gaim core and the Gaim protocols, and just
write lots of little UI functions using xul.  You register all these functions
with the Gaim core.  For example, after you've written everything, you'll
start Zuul-Gaim (or whatever you end up calling it).  Zuul-Gaim will register
all it's callback functions with the core, then draw a login window.  The user
will click on the "login" button in your little XUL window, and you will call
the Gaim core function to sign on the user.  The Gaim core will do whatever it
needs to, and once the account is signed on it will call your function to draw
the buddy list.  Then it will call your functions to add buddies to the buddy
list.  Etc.  As others have pointed out, the Core/UI split is not finished,
but we're getting closer.

-Mark

--
O      O  Mark Doliner
 \     |    mark@xxxxxxxxxxx
  \    |      www.kingant.net
"There needs to be a better word for weird."



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