[Users] The Windows port.

[Colin Leroy]

On 06 April 2013 at 00h47, Mark Filipak wrote:

Hi, 

The start of your mail has already been replied to so I'll focus on the
second part.

> In my opinion, the Claws Team would profit by acquiring the help of a
> Windows programmer.

I couldn't agree more; unfortunately we didn't find one yet.

> The various existing dialogs have obviously been designed to be
> similar to those in the Linux application, but they don't behave like
> Windows dialogs and they don't conform to Windows standards. Also,
> Windows standard dialogs that are fairly quick and easy to implement,
> such as the Open dialog, are not being used in circumstances where
> they could be used, so much time and effort is being spent (wasted?)
> on code that Windows users will find behaves in strange and/or
> mysterious and/or objectionable ways.

This kind of code comes from the underlying GTK+ library, so that's not
our time and effort that have been spent :)

> If the Claws Team acquires Windows skills, then perhaps they will
> profit from such knowledge: knowledge developed by what is, by a very
> wide margin, the largest, richest, and most successful software
> company in history.

I'm not sure what's the point there. I know of other very rich and
successful companies that are actively trying to doom our
grand children's future while making a quick buck in the short term. 
I don't think rich and large has anything to do with knowledge - or at
least wisdom. But we're going off-topic there.

> Holding Microsoft in contempt may be fashionable in Linux circles,
> but doing so denies Linux programmers access to a great many elegant,

I think I can speak for the whole team when I say that we're all past
age of hating Microsoft because it's fashionable. Our "Micro$oft $ucks"
days are well past us.
Personally, I just happen to dislike Windows because I can't seem to get
any work done on that platform, mostly due to not knowing the right
tools for the right jobs; and also because my free software ideals are
very difficult to port on Windows. Proprietary, pricey software is the
norm on Windows and the exception on our Linux/BSDs.

In reality, I'm keeping the Windows port of Claws Mail as up-to-date
and stable as I am, not because I love one-hour long builds failing in
mysterious ways after generating gigabytes of object code, but because
a few users on this mailing-list love Claws Mail for what it is and
have to use Windows sometimes. These guys and their positivism help C-M
on Win32 a lot because I wouldn't do it otherwise.

So, in any way, if you want to help make Claws Mail better for Windows,
you're very welcome - be it by patches, documentation, bug-reporting or
donations; but don't expect Claws Mail to become a different software
that the one it is today (I'm thinking of the whole mailbox/ account/
folder/ source discussion in the other thread).

Thanks,
-- 
Colin
Please forgive any typo, I'm typing one-handed for a few days
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