Re: Thoughs about communication

[Alexandre Franke <afranke gnome org>]

On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 10:52 PM, Michael Catanzaro
<mcatanzaro gnome org> wrote:
> It would be really awesome to have a GNOME Chat app based on Matrix.

It would indeed.

> Instead of implementing support for multiple protocols in the app, like
> we did with Empathy, it would focus on doing one thing well -- Matrix,
> both text and video chat (OK, two things) -- and then the quality of
> the support for other protocols would depend on the quality of Matrix
> bridges and would not be something the app has to worry about.

Depend on the quality *and* existence.

> Trying
> to support 20 different protocols really took its toll on the Empathy
> user experience. Requires manpower. Maybe someone will see this mail
> and become interested. Maybe not.

Agreed. I thought one of the arguments in favour of keeping Telepathy
around was the support for some “uncommon” protocols that are not
really supported elsewhere though? [0]

One feature that Telepathy also brings, which I find really
interesting, but which sadly hasn't really gained any traction, is
tubes. Would it be interesting and feasible to extract/port that
feature and ditch the rest of Telepathy?

Another question your proposal raises is if, providing someone
eventually volunteers to do the work, the GNOME Shell maintainers
would accept patches to drop current Telepathy-tied chat integration
and replace it with a Matrix-tied alternative.

[0] One possible answer would maybe be that those networks don't have
the critical mass required for us to spend our rare workforce on and
that we expect third party (libpurple-based?) clients to take care of
that market.

-- 
Alexandre Franke
GNOME Hacker & Foundation Director