I think it was a good change. Having Ctrl-Enter be the keyboard shortcut has bugged the ever-lovin’ bejeesus out of me ever since I first used Kopete. I don’t use Ctrl-Enter to send in any other program I’ve ever used, and besides that, I think it’s pretty clear that users want to send much more often than they want to add a newline to their message. I’ve always thought that things you do often should have easier shortcuts than those actions you perform rarely.
I don’t agree that the widget is just a “wrapped single line edit” however. There are situations where you need to add newlines to a message you’re going to send. For example, a group I’m in for school needed to turn in a paper, so we were discussing parts of it over IM. Newlines were very useful for this.
But I don’t think it’s fair to say that users expect Ctrl-Enter to send just because the widget takes more vertical height than a normal line edit. kedit has a multiline edit, what does Ctrl-Enter do there? I wouldn’t even have a clue, but it makes sense to have Enter == newline for kedit because you need to do this often for text. What you do often in Kopete is chat with people, so it makes sense to have Enter == send in this case. I must say I don’t see anything inconsistent with this change, but ask again when Kopete becomes a text editor. :P
On a totally unrelated note, it looks like my cat may not have to undergo surgery after all, as she’s recently started eating and generally acting normal again. I’m going to have an ultrasound done just to be sure though.