Workaround for libpurple's lack of set_alias()

[Felipe Contreras]

Hi,

Obviously libpurple needs a set_alias() (aka nickname/friendly-name) function.

As Mark Doliner clearly stated here:
http://pidgin.im/pipermail/devel/2009-December/009065.html

Adium works around it for msn by calling msn_act_id() [or
msn_set_friendly_name()] directly:
http://hg.adium.im/adium/file/d68b2e761e79/Plugins/Purple%20Service/ESPurpleMSNAccount.m#l364

The personalbar plug-in works around it similarly by loading the
module manually:
http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-personalbar/source/browse/trunk/personalbar.c

telepathy-haze simply throws an error:
        g_set_error (&error, TP_ERRORS, TP_ERROR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED,
            "Sadly, there's no general API in libpurple to set your own "
            "server alias.");

Indeed it's sad, and I'm sure other clients would have exactly the
same problem, and other prpls as well.

There's a much better way to workaround libpurple's handicap:

---
static void
serv_set_alias (PurpleConnection *gc,
                const char *alias)
{
    PurplePlugin *prpl;
    void (*set_alias) (PurpleConnection *gc, const char *alias);

    if (!gc)
        return;

    prpl = purple_connection_get_prpl (gc);
    if (!g_module_symbol (prpl->handle, "set_alias", (void *) &set_alias))
        return;

    set_alias (gc, alias);
}
---

Then the prpl would have to export a set_alias() function (just like
msn_set_friendly_name()). In case you are wondering if multiple
plugins's definition of set_alias() would conflict: no; symbols are
loaded in the local name-space. For example, all plugins export
'purple_init_plugin' safely.

You might wonder: wouldn't it be better to just fix libpurple? And to
that my answer is: ha! I wouldn't hold my breath. I'm attaching the
patch just in case somebody else succeeds in getting it accepted,
perhaps by issuing a secret offering to the right god, or maybe by
nailing the time when developers are not feeling moody.

Anyway, if the patch gets accepted, serv_got_alias() would work
exactly the same.

Note: I chose serv_set_alias() because there was a long discussion
between Pidgin developers and me, and the consensus was that the best
naming for nicknames/aliases stuff was: public_alias (nickname), and
private_alias. However, it really doesn't make sense to issue a
serv_set_private_alias(); if it's private, why would the server want
to know about it? So the only one that makes sense is
serv_set_public_alias(), but since there's no other one we can get rid
of the "public".

Naturally, msn-pecan would export set_alias() for clients to use this way.

Cheers.

-- 
Felipe Contreras
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