Re: Use of the IM word in Empathy

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

CCing Sjoerd, so he can give input.

On Sun, 2009-08-02 at 13:57 +0200, Milo Casagrande wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I was checking the new version of Empathy today and noticed a change
> in the terminology used, in particular the use of "IM" instead of
> "instant messaging|messenger".
> 
> The commit I'm referring is this one:
> 
> http://git.gnome.org/cgit/empathy/commit/?id=e0f2c0a49153280c723a293f2dcda0dffd931ec2
> 
> There has been some kind of discussion on the gnome-doc mailing list
> some time ago, about the use of the "IM" term:
> 
> http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-doc-list/2008-April/msg00022.html
> 
> I don't know if it's possible to revert that change, but I think it
> should be taken in consideration. FWIW, I personally prefer the "long"
> version rather than the "short" one from an i18n point of view.
> 
> Whatever the outcome, I'm not so sure that an "IM" category exists.
> From the commit:
> 
> -Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;InstantMessaging;
> +Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;IM;
> 
> That one should be InstantMessaging.

In my highly unscientific straw poll of asking my wife,
she hesitantly answered "instant messenger" for "IM",
but she was confused by the word "client".  She thinks
of herself as the client.

As for the Categories key in the desktop entry file,
neither InstantMessaging nor IM are recognized:

http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/1.0/apa.html

Maybe something to take up on freedesktop.org?

--
Shaun