Published the first experimental release of the client for instant messaging Pidgin 3.0 (2.90), which allows you to simultaneously work in several networks with different protocols and switch between chats using tabs. To expand functionality and add support for new protocols, plugins can be used. The assemblies will be prepared in Flatpak format (so far available only an archive with a code). The second text release Pidgin 3.0 is scheduled for March 31.
The proposed experimental issue of the Pidgin 3.0 has the quality of the preliminary alpha version and is not designed for everyday use. The Pidgin 3 is being developed since 2011, and before that three more years have been discussed at the level of concepts and ideas. Initially, the Pidgin 3.0 release was planned to be released at the end of 2016, but the development was delayed. The transfer of the project to the Gobject type system turned out to be more time-consuming than expected. For example, unforeseen problems arose with the alteration of the code for signal processing due to the lack of the necessary functionality in Glib.
The developers also tried to use Webkit to display the history of chats, but then abandoned this idea in favor of creating their own library for processing the input and history of chats. A lot of time was spent on improving the API – API in Pidgin 2 was based on the old AIM/ICQ protocols, did not allow identifying individual messages and did not support such opportunities as reactions, tree discussions, editing, and removing messages. Initially, it was decided to finalize the existing implementation of the API for these features, but this was a wrong solution and, after unsuccessful attempts by the API, had to be relaxed from scratch.