README

The Window Merge plugin for Pidgin is briefly documented in this file.  You can
search for the following strings to jump to the corresponding section pages.

PLUGIN OVERVIEW
DOCUMENTATION / PROJECT HISTORY
SIMPLE BUILD INSTRUCTIONS

This plugin is named "Window Merge", with a project name "window_merge".  Even
though package names such as "pidgin-window_merge" may be used, this plugin was
not written and is not maintained by Pidgin developers.  The plugin should be
considered unsupported and unstable for the time being.

This file was last revised for distribution with version 0.3.


PLUGIN OVERVIEW

A Pidgin conversation window is merged into the Buddy List window.  Both the
conversation notebook and Buddy List notebook are presented in resizable panes.
Items from the conversation window menu bar are also migrated to the Buddy List
menu bar, but are only visible when conversations are open in the Buddy List.

Users can customize where the conversations are attached relative to the Buddy
List in the plugin's preferences frame.  The position of the panes' slider is
also saved as a user preference.  In addition, an option is added to the
conversation placement preference that allows new conversations to be opened in
the Buddy List by default.

Please note that this plugin works by altering internal Pidgin data structures
in ways that were not intended by the Pidgin developers.  For this reason, this
plugin should not be enabled in situations where receiving instant messages is
critical.


DOCUMENTATION / PROJECT HISTORY

The following is the list of documentation files with their specific content:

  AUTHORS
      A list of copyright holders in the project and their contributions
  BUGS
      A list of known problems with the current plugin distribution
  ChangeLog
      A list of code changes in specific files and functions
  COPYING
      A copy of the license that covers this software
  INSTALL
      A copy of the generic installation instructions for GNU software
  NEWS
      A list of user-visible changes to the plugin
  README
      A document of general information about the project
  TODO
      A list of planned or potential changes for future versions

A sample doxygen configuration file "Doxyfile" is provided to produce an HTML-
formatted code overview.  It can be customized to preference, or used as is by
simply running the command "doxygen" in the source directory.


SIMPLE BUILD INSTRUCTIONS

If the Pidgin development files are properly installed (prebuilt packages are
probably named "pidgin-devel" or "pidgin-dev"), only two commands should be
necessary to build the plugin (run from this file's source directory):

    ./configure
    make

If successful, the plugin should have been built at ".libs/window_merge.so".
This command will install the plugin for your own account:

    make install plugindir=~/.purple/plugins

Alternatively, run the following as root to install the plugin for all users:

    make install

More information about build commands can be found in the INSTALL file.

Note that if configure specified to compile the project for Microsoft Windows
with MinGW, the output file would be ".libs/window_merge.dll".

This file can be placed in the folder "%AppData%\.purple\plugins" to install it
for your own account.  (Create the "plugins" folder if it doesn't exist; enter
"%AppData%\.purple" directly into the Explorer address bar to find it.)

To install it for all users, place "window_merge.dll" in the "plugins" folder
found at Pidgin's installation location.