What should be in the contact list

[George Kiagiadakis]

2011/2/11 Martin Klapetek <martin.klapetek at gmail.com>:
> On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 14:18, George Kiagiadakis
> <kiagiadakis.george at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> 2011/2/10 Martin Klapetek <martin.klapetek at gmail.com>:
>> >> - A way of selecting your current presence?
>> >>  (slightly controversial, given we have a plasmoid, but I can see
>> >> plenty
>> >> of reasons to have it in the contact list as well. It'd be a bit
>> >> clearer. I
>> >> don't think it goes away from desktop integration)
>> >
>> > My vote is to keep this one in the CL as well. Imagine you don't have
>> > the
>> > plasmoid anywhere, have hidden panel etc. and you want to quickly set
>> > your
>> > presence. CL is the ideal place for that. Also Empathy has it there ;)
>>
>> I also have an idea about this one, related to the above a little bit.
>> There are two possible usage scenarios of an IM app. The traditional
>> PC IM apps have a contact list that is the "main" window for doing
>> everything and that minimizes to the tray instead of closing, etc, and
>> the destop-integrated IM solutions (see N900 again) have a contact
>> list that doesn't really offer anything else than contacts.
>> Personally, I think our target should be the desktop integrated thing,
>> however, I think that many people will complain about it, as it is
>> something unfamiliar to them, so perhaps we could build a contact list
>> ui that can handle both use cases.
>>
>> My proposal is this: If the user has the presence plasmoid active on
>> his desktop, adjust the contact list ui to show only contacts and no
>> accounts or anything else. In this case, the contact list should also
>> not minimize anywhere when closed, it should exit properly, plus it
>> should not alter the status of the accounts when it is closed. But, in
>> case the user has no presence plasmoid active, adjust the contact list
>> to act as a traditional IM app, which means: show accounts and a way
>> to set them online/offline, minimize to the tray instead of closing,
>> set accounts offline when it is closed and offer options to start the
>> text/call UIs so that the user can join chat rooms or call numbers
>> through the contact list. Of course this could be all configurable,
>> there is no point in restricting users if the application supports
>> something, I am just talking about defaults here.
>
> Yes, showing/hiding the account presence controls is perfectly doable in the
> current CL implementation. I like the idea, too. Though I would at least
> keep the ability to start a text chat from CL all the time. What else would
> the CL be for then? :)

Yes of course, the contact list will have options to start all kinds
of channels, but *with contacts*. Text chat with a contact, call with
a contact, etc...

>>
>> >>
>> >> - A list of current connection issues?
>> >>  (again like Empathy which displays warning at the top of the list if
>> >> anything failed to connect, then launching the accounts-kcm as
>> >> appropriate)
>> >
>> > Yes, we definitely need a way to let the user see the connection issues.
>> > Empathy's way seems great. Although I'd move it down, again as Dolphin
>> > uses
>> > it (and it fact the rest of KDE).
>>
>> Yeah, we need that as well, but I think the presence plasmoid should
>> also show such errors and in the contact list their appearence should
>> be tied to the appearence of the accounts status, i.e. if the contact
>> list is configured to show no accounts, it should show no connection
>> errors as well.
>
> How about showing them in the CL if the window has focus, otherwise show
> them in the plasma applet (if loaded)?

It could work I guess... This could also be configurable, it's not
much code anyway to check if the window has focus or not (must be 1-2
lines...)