[Pidgin] #4986: automatic chat input field resizing should be optional, regression from 2.3

[Pidgin]

#4986: automatic chat input field resizing should be optional, regression from 2.3
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  swbrown       |       Owner:                   
      Type:  enhancement   |      Status:  new              
  Priority:  minor         |   Milestone:                   
 Component:  pidgin (gtk)  |     Version:  2.4.0            
Resolution:                |    Keywords:  chat input resize
   Pending:  0             |  
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
Comment (by quoderat):

 It seems as software projects age, they offer their users fewer
 customization options. Firefox 3 seems to be poised to do the same thing,
 for instance.

 Windows has done this. Gnome in Linux has done this; Nautilus — the so-
 called file manager — being the most glaring example. Microsoft Office has
 done this. Adobe products have done this. Internet Explorer has done this.
 Many, many more software project have done this, to the displeasure of the
 majority of users of each product.

 Why, I wonder? I have some ideas. Don’t I always?

 The main reason is that when a software project is young, it attempts to
 attract and keep new users any way that it can. One of these ways is to
 allow the program to be customized to act and look like the user expects
 or wishes it to — perhaps like a competitor’s product, or an older
 version, or any of many other innumerable possilities. At that point,
 attracting users and making them happy is the modus operandi of the entire
 endeavor.

 However, as the software becomes accepted and picks up more users who are
 unlikely to switch to anything else, the software becomes a standard of
 sorts. That’s when the developers begin to get a little arrogant. Most
 developers think they know the One True Way that users should interact
 with their software, and when there is no longer any reason to coddle the
 users, and management can be convinved that angering the market has no
 consequences, those One True Way developers start to herd the “sheep” into
 how they think these sheep should work.

 So buttons become unmovable, or disappear altogether. Options can’t be
 added, or taken away. The GUI can’t be changed. Default options are always
 default, no matter what. Keyboard shortcuts can’t be altered, and the
 order of operations is set in stone. The application becomes a
 sarcophagus, displeasing most of its users, and most especially its more
 passionate users. (This incidentally, is how software evolves; as one
 becomes a tomb, another is born. This is what spawned Firefox, for
 instance.)

 I am not interested in the One True Way any developer thinks I should use
 their application. I want to be able to change my buttons all around, even
 in a way that violates every usability guideline on the fucking planet. I
 want to be able to re-order my menus to be completely unintuitive to
 anyone except a blind Alpha Centauran on acid. I want to be able to put my
 file menu on the bottom of the app, or maybe even on another monitor
 altogether. How the fuck do you know how I am going to use a piece of
 software, anyway? You don’t, and that’s why when options get taken away
 from me, it just hurts your software and your project in the end. I almost
 never use software as some developer intends it; almost no one does.
 That’s just the nature of software.

 All those One True Way developers and managers can take their One True Way
 and shove it up their One True Ass with a spiny anteater for
 companionship.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4986#comment:90>
Pidgin <http://pidgin.im>
Pidgin