Miranda IM versus QIP Infium
Unoriginal topic, but for me it was quite urgent.
Despite the fact that I love to delve into different things and customize them for myself - my desire does not rub off so far as to change from Windows to GNU \ Linux, but according to numerous friends' advice and persuasion I briefly transferred from QIP Infium , or something) on ​​Miranda IM. And the result was at first categorically and incredibly strongly dissatisfied, and then some kind of emotionally aggressive outburst was asleep and Miranda continued to dislike me quite passively.
In this place, I should note that I looked from the position of an ordinary user who needs a “combine”. I didn’t care about the licenses, kernels, the openness of the code and the language in which it was written.
')
For myself, I was able to highlight the main problems of Miranda :
1. Absolutely indigestible out-of-the-box client.
Poor interface. Yes, without whistles like transitions, transparency and other blackouts, but I don’t really need it - I’m not playing a toy or looking at a fantastic saga. But seeing the client in such a harsh condition is the first thing I would wish for - just to remove it to hell, even without understanding how and what can be replaced and configured.
2. Congestion settings.
In Miranda, you can really customize anything, but something completely beyond the limits is available with plug-ins. But going into the settings for some kind of nonsense, I spend fifteen minutes there trying to figure out what's what. This should be attributed to the problem of cataloging and sorting options so that the new user is immediately clear where he will get and do what he wants.
3. Lack of localization.
No, of course there is Miranda Planet, which generates a translation file for version information and plug-ins, but the client himself out of the box should not welcome any user in English.
4. Relying on the audience of confident users and IT-specialists.
On the one hand, this makes a clear distinction between the audience of the project and all others. A complete novice, who doesn’t even know what ICQ is, cannot cope with the program and will abandon the whole process at the very beginning simply because such nonsense should not take so much time and effort. And generally speaking it is a very offensive fact, because Miranda is really a promising client, but with a lot of flaws with which it cannot become world-famous like Firefox, for example.
These are the key nuances of working with Miranda IM, problems that QIP Infium lacks.
And now about how (in my view) it would be worth solving them :
1. Insert a new skin into the official client, support for working with tabs, history and other things that people still shake. At the same time, for owners of weak cars and in general for people who don’t need it, leave and update the version where all this is not.
2. Deal with the design and design the settings tree in such a way that it will not stun the user with thousands of items. (As far as I know, work in this direction is already underway.)
3. Attract people who will translate the interface into all the languages ​​of the world and when entering the site, slip the version in their language, as is done in the case of Firefox.
4. Simplification of the installation and configuration process, creation of a well-documented help and some other Quick Start that would explain to the user in a couple of words what it is all about, why he needs it and how to get it from all this more quickly and without straining.
Many will reasonably argue with me, replying that there are hundreds of popular assemblies in which some of these problems are solved. But these are assemblies, and not official builds, and in many ways the authors of these assemblies create even more problems than they solve, if only because they are not specialists at the level of developers and it is difficult to talk seriously about assemblies.
For myself, after an annual experience with Miranda, I had to decide to return to QIP.
Just because it's easier and the IM client is clearly not the thing, because of which I will waste time and nerves.
And later we'll see, maybe I will return to Miranda after the release of the version without the prefix "0."
Despite the fact that I love to delve into different things and customize them for myself - my desire does not rub off so far as to change from Windows to GNU \ Linux, but according to numerous friends' advice and persuasion I briefly transferred from QIP Infium , or something) on ​​Miranda IM. And the result was at first categorically and incredibly strongly dissatisfied, and then some kind of emotionally aggressive outburst was asleep and Miranda continued to dislike me quite passively.
In this place, I should note that I looked from the position of an ordinary user who needs a “combine”. I didn’t care about the licenses, kernels, the openness of the code and the language in which it was written.
')
For myself, I was able to highlight the main problems of Miranda :
1. Absolutely indigestible out-of-the-box client.
Poor interface. Yes, without whistles like transitions, transparency and other blackouts, but I don’t really need it - I’m not playing a toy or looking at a fantastic saga. But seeing the client in such a harsh condition is the first thing I would wish for - just to remove it to hell, even without understanding how and what can be replaced and configured.
2. Congestion settings.
In Miranda, you can really customize anything, but something completely beyond the limits is available with plug-ins. But going into the settings for some kind of nonsense, I spend fifteen minutes there trying to figure out what's what. This should be attributed to the problem of cataloging and sorting options so that the new user is immediately clear where he will get and do what he wants.
3. Lack of localization.
No, of course there is Miranda Planet, which generates a translation file for version information and plug-ins, but the client himself out of the box should not welcome any user in English.
4. Relying on the audience of confident users and IT-specialists.
On the one hand, this makes a clear distinction between the audience of the project and all others. A complete novice, who doesn’t even know what ICQ is, cannot cope with the program and will abandon the whole process at the very beginning simply because such nonsense should not take so much time and effort. And generally speaking it is a very offensive fact, because Miranda is really a promising client, but with a lot of flaws with which it cannot become world-famous like Firefox, for example.
These are the key nuances of working with Miranda IM, problems that QIP Infium lacks.
And now about how (in my view) it would be worth solving them :
1. Insert a new skin into the official client, support for working with tabs, history and other things that people still shake. At the same time, for owners of weak cars and in general for people who don’t need it, leave and update the version where all this is not.
2. Deal with the design and design the settings tree in such a way that it will not stun the user with thousands of items. (As far as I know, work in this direction is already underway.)
3. Attract people who will translate the interface into all the languages ​​of the world and when entering the site, slip the version in their language, as is done in the case of Firefox.
4. Simplification of the installation and configuration process, creation of a well-documented help and some other Quick Start that would explain to the user in a couple of words what it is all about, why he needs it and how to get it from all this more quickly and without straining.
Many will reasonably argue with me, replying that there are hundreds of popular assemblies in which some of these problems are solved. But these are assemblies, and not official builds, and in many ways the authors of these assemblies create even more problems than they solve, if only because they are not specialists at the level of developers and it is difficult to talk seriously about assemblies.
For myself, after an annual experience with Miranda, I had to decide to return to QIP.
Just because it's easier and the IM client is clearly not the thing, because of which I will waste time and nerves.
And later we'll see, maybe I will return to Miranda after the release of the version without the prefix "0."
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/88317/
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