Re: Suggestion for discussion: cleaning up the plugins page

[pidgin]

[ Response to Eion is below the response to Shlomi ]



On 05-09-2016 03:31, Shlomi Fish wrote:

There are multiple ways that the plugins page can be improved:


Can you provide a link to it?


https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/ThirdPartyPlugins


1. Removing the links that are no longer resolving.


Well preferably we should search for newer (and working) links
instead or maybe use archive.org if possible.


Possibly, if the archived page contains a usable version of the add-on that 
works with the latest Pidgin.


2. Indicating outdated plugins that no longer work.


Indicating them as what?


As not working (but possibly forkable).


3. Indicating whether binary releases are available, or better yet,
providing binaries for all plugins that do not have them yet
(mostly for MS-Windows DLLs)


Sounds good, but providing binaries may involve a lot of work on the
part of the maintainers of the page.


Assuming that the 3rd-party plugins can be divided into two groups, abandoned 
and actively maintained, I suggest the following:

a. For abandoned plugins, fork them; put a copy on, say, github; build binaries 
for those that cannot compile from source.
This would be a one-time operation for the page maintainer(s).

b. For actively maintained plugins, reach out to the developers and ask them if 
they could compile and/or cross-compile binaries when a release is warranted, 
or even better, set up an automated build system (something like 
https://travis-ci.org), or even have the pidgin team build and host the 
binaries.

There are many options, what is needed is the will to address the issue.


4. Indicating the date/time of the latest source and binary
releases (useful for plugins that change often)


Sounds good, but see
http://perl.plover.com/yak/12views/samples/notes.html#sl-9 .


A plugin can be considered actively maintained even after it is "finished" if 
the developer responds to tickets.

Anyway, the problem that I am trying to address is different.  I am perfectly happy with 
a plugin that hasn't been updated in ages but works smoothly.  It's the plugins that are 
a "work in progress" that I am concerned about.

Case in point: The Yahoo 2016 protocol plugin.
When I open a ticket, I am often told that the problem was fixed in a specific 
commit, or asked if I use the latest DLL.  Since I cannot build from source at 
this time, and the DLL is hosted on Eion's site without any information on when 
it was built or what commits got into it, I find the situation uncomfortable.


I may be able to invest some time in working on that page.


That would be great!



On 05-09-2016 19:55, Eion Robb wrote:

There's been a few attempts at a Pidgin Plugins Website over the
years.  Most of them turned out as flops.


That is unfortunate.  I find the 3rd-party plugins to be an important part of Pidgin's 
"ecosystem"


As a plugin developer, I feel that having somewhere like
http://adiumxtras.com/ or https://addons.instantbird.org/ to be able
to upload plugins to would be great, but as a Pidgin dev, I'd be very
nervous about hosting dll/so's and the added complications of testing
for malware that goes along with it.


Maybe a compromise can be struck, with Pidgin's group working together with 
plugin developers to provide a solution.
Options can include hooks into the plugins' source repositories.
The page can have links to the plugins' pages but have some sort of up-to-date 
"status" for each one (automatically updated or triggered by the plugin author 
actions).

Also see my reply to Shlomi (above).


1. Removing the links that are no longer resolving.


The ThirdPartyPlugins wiki is editable, feel free to remove or update
those links


Being a newcomer to the party, and not well versed in the way of the Pidgin, 
I'd rather not touch the wiki myself for now.


2. Indicating outdated plugins that no longer work.


Due to the way Pidgin follows semver, all plugins *should* work with
newer versions in any Pidgin 2.x release.  Are you finding some
plugins that aren't?


No idea what "semver" is, but when I first installed Pidgin, I went over many 
of the plugins on the wiki page and I remember that some (a small number) failed to work.


3. Indicating whether binary releases are available, or better yet,
providing binaries for all plugins that do not have them yet
(mostly for MS-Windows DLLs)


See above about not hosting dll's


Please see my response to Shlomi above.
Abandoned plugins can be forked and releases created from source.  For actively 
maintained plugins, their authors could be engaged.


4. Indicating the date/time of the latest source and binary
releases (useful for plugins that change often)


This could change often and would just end up with noise.


What's wrong with it changing often?  That's the point!
Wikipedia has an "infobox" for its 

Re: Suggestion for discussion: Support for the Trillian native protocol

[pidgin]

On 05-09-2016 19:55, Eion Robb wrote:

Patches welcome ;)


A very polite way of telling me to sod off.

___
Support@pidgin.im mailing list
Want to unsubscribe?  Use this link:
https://pidgin.im/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support

Re: Suggestion for discussion: Support for the Trillian native protocol

[Eion Robb]

Patches welcome ;)

On 5 September 2016 at 14:53,  wrote:

> Pidgin is a great multi-protocol client, but unfortunately it doesn't run
> on Android and iOS, therefore people that want to have a mobile alternative
> are limited to either Trillian or IM+.
>
> IM+ is not in active development anymore and is allegedly less stable, so
> Trillian appears to be the client of choice (and is the one I use).
>
> Despite Trillian's multi-protocol nature, it does have a native protocol
> and many just use it without being aware of its multi-protocol nature and
> being bothered to set up other accounts.  Besides, Trillian's Jabber
> support has a nasty habit of leaking information about your phone's ID if
> you don't explicitly specify the resource.
>
> Therefore, my suggestion is to implement the Trillian native protocol in
> Pidgin (possibly as a plugin).
>
> Trillian's native protocol is described here:
> https://www.trillian.im/impp/
>
>
> ___
> Support@pidgin.im mailing list
> Want to unsubscribe?  Use this link:
> https://pidgin.im/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support
___
Support@pidgin.im mailing list
Want to unsubscribe?  Use this link:
https://pidgin.im/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support

Re: Suggestion for discussion: cleaning up the plugins page

[Eion Robb]

There's been a few attempts at a Pidgin Plugins Website over the years.
Most of them turned out as flops.

As a plugin developer, I feel that having somewhere like
http://adiumxtras.com/ or https://addons.instantbird.org/ to be able to
upload plugins to would be great, but as a Pidgin dev, I'd be very nervous
about hosting dll/so's and the added complications of testing for malware
that goes along with it.

> 1. Removing the links that are no longer resolving.

The ThirdPartyPlugins wiki is editable, feel free to remove or update those
links

> 2. Indicating outdated plugins that no longer work.

Due to the way Pidgin follows semver, all plugins *should* work with newer
versions in any Pidgin 2.x release.  Are you finding some plugins that
aren't?

> 3. Indicating whether binary releases are available, or better yet,
providing binaries for all plugins that do not have them yet (mostly for
MS-Windows DLLs)

See above about not hosting dll's

> 4. Indicating the date/time of the latest source and binary releases
(useful for plugins that change often)

This could change often and would just end up with noise.  I like Shlomi
Fish's link about it :)


In the past, we used to have additional columns of information on the
ThirdPartyPlugins wiki page, however this just caused additional noise and
gamification of devs trying to push their plugins to the top.  After that
was a blight on the inboxes, I reorganised it all to be alphabetical, and
removed all the fluff that was unnecessary.



On 5 September 2016 at 15:18, Alex Oren  wrote:

> There are multiple ways that the plugins page can be improved:
>
> 1. Removing the links that are no longer resolving.
>
> 2. Indicating outdated plugins that no longer work.
>
> 3. Indicating whether binary releases are available, or better yet,
> providing binaries for all plugins that do not have them yet (mostly for
> MS-Windows DLLs)
>
> 4. Indicating the date/time of the latest source and binary releases
> (useful for plugins that change often)
>
> Please comment.
>
> ___
> Support@pidgin.im mailing list
> Want to unsubscribe?  Use this link:
> https://pidgin.im/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support
___
Support@pidgin.im mailing list
Want to unsubscribe?  Use this link:
https://pidgin.im/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support

Re: Suggestion for discussion: cleaning up the plugins page

[Shlomi Fish]

Hi Alex,

first of all, I should note that you should not start a new thread by replying
to an existing message. Please see this:

http://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/netiquette/email/start-new-thread.html

On Sun, 4 Sep 2016 23:18:59 -0400
Alex Oren  wrote:

> There are multiple ways that the plugins page can be improved:
> 

Can you provide a link to it?

> 1. Removing the links that are no longer resolving.
> 

Well preferably we should search for newer (and working) links instead or
maybe use archive.org if possible. 

> 2. Indicating outdated plugins that no longer work.
> 

Indicating them as what?

> 3. Indicating whether binary releases are available, or better yet, providing
> binaries for all plugins that do not have them yet (mostly for MS-Windows
> DLLs)
> 

Sounds good, but providing binaries may involve a lot of work on the part of
the maintainers of the page.
 
> 4. Indicating the date/time of the latest source and binary releases (useful
> for plugins that change often)
> 

Sounds good, but see
http://perl.plover.com/yak/12views/samples/notes.html#sl-9 .

I may be able to invest some time in working on that page.

Regards,

Shlomi Fish

-- 
-
Shlomi Fish   http://www.shlomifish.org/
Let’s talk about restores instead of backups - http://is.gd/WatQqu

  If you repeat a scene 50k times, then the movie will have less
entropy and will compress better. ( irc://irc.freenode.org/#perlcafe )

Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply .

___
Support@pidgin.im mailing list
Want to unsubscribe?  Use this link:
https://pidgin.im/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support

Pidgin suggestion for discussion: cleaning up the plugins page

[Cedric Bhihe]

Though I am no dev, just an active Pidgin+plugin user,
IMO every bullet in Alex' list below scores a point.

Point 3 cannot go without point 4.
Together they should show under one bullet.

*-cedric*
cedric dot bhihe at gmail dot com
- /GMT+1/


__

On 05/09/16 05:18, Alex Oren wrote:

There are multiple ways that the plugins page can be improved:

1. Removing the links that are no longer resolving.

2. Indicating outdated plugins that no longer work.

3. Indicating whether binary releases are available, or better yet, 
providing binaries for all plugins that do not have them yet (mostly 
for MS-Windows DLLs)


4. Indicating the date/time of the latest source and binary releases 
(useful for plugins that change often)


Please comment.

___
Support@pidgin.im mailing list
Want to unsubscribe?  Use this link:
https://pidgin.im/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support


___
Support@pidgin.im mailing list
Want to unsubscribe?  Use this link:
https://pidgin.im/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support