Re: next steps for touch support in GTK+

[Michael Torrie <torriem gmail com>]

On 08/04/2012 07:41 AM, Emmanuele Bassi wrote:
>> and yet another case of "i'm so nervous and irritated by criticism of our
>> design decisions that i'll resort to calling people stupid" ...
> 
> design has nothing to do with it, sorry to disappoint the conspiracy theorists.
> 
> just another case of "somebody is wrong on the Internet" that I should
> know better not to reply to.

Just recently there was a discussion on this list about ways to better
communicate between GTK+ devs and others including GTK+ users in order
to attract potential contributors and keep GTK+ users in the loop as to
the future of GTK+.  For this reason I'm gratified to see this thread
hit the devel list.  It's interesting to be updated on the direction
GTK+ is heading.

That said, if the GTK+ developers cannot accept criticism of design
decisions (you don't have to explain every little thing of course), or
at least tolerate them (not the same as ignoring btw), then I fear we
have the same problem that we had before, which is the perception that
GTK+ developers are doing their own thing and not listening to the
users.  Maybe the only GTK+ users that matter are the Gnome developers,
I don't know.  But certainly at least two GTK+ users on this list have
expressed the legitimate concern that the GtkSwitch widget has usability
issues, which seems fair.  They are definitely not "wrong on the
Internet."  Doesn't mean they are right and that GTK+ should change
direction, but reacting the way you did doesn't reflect well on the GTK+
developers.  A more proper way to react may have been "I can see your
point, but current UI direction and usability research disagrees with
you" or "we've received very positive feedback regarding this widget
from GTK+ users and feel like this is the right direction to go."  Agree
to disagree, etc.  Instead we're left wondering if GTK+ is just doing
things because they're cool (IE Apple does it).