annotate PROGRAMMING_NOTES @ 10475:94fd0bf8c4b1

[gaim-migrate @ 11762] sf patch #1094341, from Richard Laager implements sf rfe #1090971 "tracks when a buddy was last seen and displays this value in the tooltip for offline and "signing on" buddies." The changes for this feature were pretty small and self-contained, and it's a neat feature. Then I started changing other things. I changed the way tooltips are created to use GStrings. I think it's easier to make changes without screwing stuff up, and the code is hopefully a bit easier to read through. I also changed how Add a Chat and Join a Chat work slightly. Now PRPLs can specify if a field is required or not, and the dialogs will not allow the user to click on "ok" if the field is not filled in. For example, when joining an oscar chat, the room name MUST be specified. This change and I think something else minor should fix the problem with adding chats to the buddy list that didn't have names. committer: Tailor Script <[e-mail]>

Notes on keeping GAIM OS independant
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General
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- Use G_DIR_SEPARATOR_S and G_DIR_SEPARATOR for paths

- Use g_getenv, g_snprintf, g_vsnprintf

- Use gaim_home_dir instead of g_get_home_dir or g_getenv("HOME")

- Make sure when including win32dep.h that it is the last header to
  be included.

- Open binary files when reading or writing with 'b' mode.

  e.g: fopen("somefile", "wb");

  Not doing so will open files in windows using defaut translation mode. 
  i.e. newline -> <CR><LF>

Paths
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- DATADIR, LOCALEDIR & LIBDIR are defined in wingaim as functions.
  Doing the following will therefore break the windows build:

  printf("File in DATADIR is: %s\n", DATADIR G_DIR_SEPARATOR_S "pic.png");

  it should be:

  printf("File in DATADIR is: %s%s%s\n", DATADIR, G_DIR_SEPARATOR_S, "pic.png");

PLUGINS & PROTOS
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- G_MODULE_EXPORT all functions which are to be accessed from outside the
  scope of its "dll" or "so". (E.G. gaim_plugin_init)

- G_MODULE_IMPORT all global variables which are located outside your
  dynamic library. (E.G. connections)

  (Not doing this will cause "Memory Access Violations" in Win32)