Call for testing empathy

[Andrew Sayers]

Xavier Claessens wrote:
> What do you mean by merging? The code is totally different, it's
> impossible to merge together.
> 
> Xavier Claessens

I'm talking more about merging the projects than the codebases - finding
a way that you can all work on a single project that would satisfy users
and developers of both.  That would mean working out the unique selling
points from both projects, and finding a way of developing an
application that has the best of both.  For example, the ability to use
(or just import) configuration files from older versions of Ekiga and
Empathy, the best user interface elements of both,  automatic creation
of an ekiga.net account, and so on.  I accept that you'd need to throw
away a significant chunk of code from both projects, but to be honest,
my experience has been that rewriting code isn't too time-consuming once
you've made all the little decisions about how the program needs to work.

Ego-wise, it would probably also mean picking a new name for the joint
project, because otherwise one project's members feel like they've been
gobbled up by another project.  You could use that to your advantage
though - calling the joint project something like "GNOME instant
messaging" would give the impression of an official part of GNOME,
integrated with the wider project.  That would help you sell other GNOME
folk on using the library in their own apps.

I assume that you're planning to replace Ekiga as the default GNOME
voice/video client in the long-run anyway, so it seems worthwhile to go
through the pain of merging the projects now, rather duplicate each
other's work until you're ready to have a bitter fight on a mailing list
somewhere about which project lives and which dies.

	- Andrew