On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 12:23 PM, Moses Lei <b...@moseslei.net> wrote:
> On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 1:35 PM, Robert Vehse <robertve...@fastmail.fm>wrote: > >> >> Menu bar item >> - active input: maybe a bit too geeky for the average user >> >> I disagree. iCal has this and it's mostly self explanatory, you type in > some text like "lunch with Alana on Friday 8pm" and it parses it and > creates your event. Natural language parsing has a lot of uses (for example > this could be extended to cover voice when Siri comes to the Mac), and is > often faster than hunting for a menu item or a particular contact among > hundreds. > > On the other side of the argument, I'm not sure I care about the "average > user"... Ideally, Adium users are above average. (: More to the point, I > think we attract a different user audience with Adium than, say, Messages-- > someone who wants more control over their IM experience. Something like > this active input field (maybe "Quick Chat" by analogy to "Quick Event" in > iCal?) would be interesting to these users. > [Quick reply on this specific feature, longer reply later when I get a chance to write it up.] I think the active input is actually one of my favorite parts of this proposal. I'd love to see more apps move in a similar direction. The idea that someone can just start typing and get to where they want without needing to remember the menu option or shortcut or icon to click is really powerful and enables some really cool interactions. I think we could even benefit from something like this in our current form (as a starting point). Imagine if we made the contact search box a little smarter… It could be pretty awesome. Of course I also need to play the role of wet blanket… All of these proposals are fantastic, but we also need to have the people to work on it. If the ideas can generate enough excitement for those with the time to contribute to the endeavor, great! However, if we don't have anyone with the time/desire/skill set/whatever-other-things-might-be-needed to make some headway on it, that could just lead to disappointment. I certainly hope that wouldn't be the case, but it's my responsibility to put that out there. That said, I really hope we can get some traction towards a refresh. Whether it's a complete re-write or an incremental refresh, progress is progress. Whether we like it or not, visual changes are what gets people's attention. I'm not naive enough to think that it would bring 30 new developers with their entire summers to devote to the project, but if we could attract a few that otherwise might not have given working on Adium a second thought? That's a win for all of us; Users and Devs alike. -Eric
