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I still remember how their developers requested that transmission (a popular third-party torrent app) remove support for system tray icons because Gnome removed

by hda2 6y ago

I still remember how their developers requested that transmission (a popular third-party torrent app) remove support for system tray icons because Gnome removed them. They eventually decided to side-step developers and remove system tray support from GTK entirely. Edit: changed "demanded" to "requested" to be more neutral. See comment bellow.

cycloptic 6y ago
For reference, here is the bug: https://trac.transmissionbt.com/ticket/3685 https://trac.transmissionbt.com/ticket/3685 Reading further down, it's hard for me to see a demand there, I see a heads-up about an upcoming deprecation and a suggestion of what to do about it. The reason the system tray support was deprecated and removed eventually was because nobody was keeping it up-to-date.
anoncake 6y ago
Money quote from the bug: > I guess you have to decide if you are a GNOME app, an Ubuntu app, or an XFCE app unfortunately. I'm sorry that this is the case but it wasn't GNOME's fault that Ubuntu has started this fork. And I have no idea what XFCE is or does sorry.
- bayindirh 6y ago
  Why can't Transmission-gtk be just a well written GTK app and play nice everywhere? Why the (forced) distinction?
  - NullPrefix 6y ago
    You're either with us or against us!
  - cycloptic 6y ago
    You might say this is "fragmentation." Up until two years ago Ubuntu had a different shell (Unity) with a different API for this, and up until last year XFCE was mostly still using GTK2 and its deprecated APIs. Things are getting better now (Ubuntu's tray is just an ordinary GNOME extension, XFCE supports the new API) but it's taken time to reconcile everything.
- bigbubba 6y ago
  > And I have no idea what XFCE is or does sorry. This is the point where I realized that person was not commenting in good faith. It simply isn't plausible that a GNOME developer was earnestly unaware of XFCE's existence.
  - cycloptic 6y ago
    I honestly disagree. If I hadn't looked at some of the other Ubuntu flavors at some point I probably would have no idea what XFCE is.
    - dleslie 6y ago
      That's like someone on Microsoft's kernel team claiming that they've never heard of QNX. It's certainly possible, even likely, but such an admission would be a gross condemnation of the knowledge of the developer regarding their necessary domain knowledge.
      - cycloptic 6y ago
        Maybe for a startup employee or a senior level. For a junior/mid level developer at a large firm transferred from another team, absolutely not. Knowing all alternatives that exist on the market is the job of management, not ICs.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
        dleslie 6y ago
        That's a dismal view, and a condemnation of the quality of work done by such individuals. If they aren't aware of the current state of technology and the market competition, how can they partake meaningfully in decision making?
        cycloptic 6y ago
        In a a lot of bigger companies, developers don't need to partake in certain kinds of decision making, management makes the hard decisions for them. Why is this a dismal view? Not everything is a startup, and some people who I've talked to who enjoy the corporate life have told me they see this as a positive because it makes their job easier.

by hda2 6y ago

cycloptic 6y ago

For reference, here is the bug: https://trac.transmissionbt.com/ticket/3685 https://trac.transmissionbt.com/ticket/3685 Reading further down, it's hard for me to see a demand there, I see a heads-up about an upcoming deprecation and a suggestion of what to do about it. The reason the system tray support was deprecated and removed eventually was because nobody was keeping it up-to-date.

anoncake 6y ago

Money quote from the bug: > I guess you have to decide if you are a GNOME app, an Ubuntu app, or an XFCE app unfortunately. I'm sorry that this is the case but it wasn't GNOME's fault that Ubuntu has started this fork. And I have no idea what XFCE is or does sorry.

bayindirh 6y ago
Why can't Transmission-gtk be just a well written GTK app and play nice everywhere? Why the (forced) distinction?
- NullPrefix 6y ago
  You're either with us or against us!
- cycloptic 6y ago
  You might say this is "fragmentation." Up until two years ago Ubuntu had a different shell (Unity) with a different API for this, and up until last year XFCE was mostly still using GTK2 and its deprecated APIs. Things are getting better now (Ubuntu's tray is just an ordinary GNOME extension, XFCE supports the new API) but it's taken time to reconcile everything.
bigbubba 6y ago
> And I have no idea what XFCE is or does sorry. This is the point where I realized that person was not commenting in good faith. It simply isn't plausible that a GNOME developer was earnestly unaware of XFCE's existence.
- cycloptic 6y ago
  I honestly disagree. If I hadn't looked at some of the other Ubuntu flavors at some point I probably would have no idea what XFCE is.
  - dleslie 6y ago
    That's like someone on Microsoft's kernel team claiming that they've never heard of QNX. It's certainly possible, even likely, but such an admission would be a gross condemnation of the knowledge of the developer regarding their necessary domain knowledge.
    - cycloptic 6y ago
      Maybe for a startup employee or a senior level. For a junior/mid level developer at a large firm transferred from another team, absolutely not. Knowing all alternatives that exist on the market is the job of management, not ICs.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - dleslie 6y ago
        That's a dismal view, and a condemnation of the quality of work done by such individuals. If they aren't aware of the current state of technology and the market competition, how can they partake meaningfully in decision making?
        cycloptic 6y ago
        In a a lot of bigger companies, developers don't need to partake in certain kinds of decision making, management makes the hard decisions for them. Why is this a dismal view? Not everything is a startup, and some people who I've talked to who enjoy the corporate life have told me they see this as a positive because it makes their job easier.