Re: Proposal: Gabber and gnome--

[Ali Abdin <ALIABDIN aucegypt edu>]

On Mon, 4 Sep 2000, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:

> Julian Missig <julian linuxpower org> writes:
> 
> > (I'll copy mjs's format because it's fairly easy to follow)
> > 
> > 1) I would like to propose that along with gtk--, whatever latest
> > version of gnome-- that Karl Nelson manages to release also be added to
> > the GNOME 1.4 package list.
> > 
> > Rationale: If we're going to have the C++ GTK+ bindings, we should also
> > have the GNOME bindings.
> 
> I think including gnome-- would be a good idea if Karl is willing to
> declare it stable and API-frozen for GNOME 1.x.
>  
> > 2) I would also like to propose that Dave Smith and my GNOME Jabber
> > Client, "Gabber" be added to the package list. Gabber currently requires
> > gtk--, gnome--, libglade, and gnet. However, if gnet will not be in the
> > GNOME 1.4 package list, we can include it with Gabber (I believe)
> > 
> > Rationale: Gabber is a GNOME client for an up-and-coming open source
> > instant messaging system. It would be very nice to support an open
> > source IM system, especially when it has the capability of communicating
> > with the closed source systems (ICQ, AIM, Yahoo!, etc) if you so desire.
> 
> I personally don't think we should include Gabber at this
> time. Although chat is an important space, there's like 30 different
> chat programs for GNOME and I don't think we should pick which to
> include until and unless there is some clear winner.

I disagree - The good thing about Gabber is that it has the possibility 
to handle various IM protocols (i.e. Yahoo Pager, AIM, ICQ, Jabber, etc.) 
All this is done server-side - i.e. you don't need to upgrade your client 
when a new 'transport' is supported.

I see no reason why we currently have gnomeicu and not gabber (the only 
'issue' I have with gabber is that it doesn't have a panel applet (yes I 
know about the tasklet or whatever its called)).

It is probably not a good idea to include chat programs that only support 
one protocol (because that would imply that GNOME 'endorses' that 
protocol). As far as I can see Jabber is the only 'Free' protocol out 
there (all the others have clients thanks to reverse-engineering). 

Then again there is 'EveryBuddy' which supports multiple protocols - but 
I do not advocate that because last I checked it didn't support any 
'Free' protocols (i.e. Jabber)