Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge) [LWN.net]

Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge)

Posted Mar 30, 2004 13:22 UTC (Tue) by wstephenson (subscriber, #14795)
In reply to: Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge) by mrshiny
Parent article: Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge)

Hope this helps:

Customise away messages:
Settings Menu (or right click systray icon)->Configure Kopete...->Behaviour->Away Settings and look at the Predefined Messages section.
Message a metacontact using a specific IM system

Instead of clicking the contact name, click the icon of the specific system you want to use (eg ICQ flower)
Show chats with same person using different IM systems together

We don't merge chats as you type (how would we know which IM system to send outgoing messages on - the other party might not be merging chats and would only get replies on one IM system), but you can used tabbed chat windows grouped by metacontact, if you like. Settings Menu->Configure Kopete...->Behaviour->Chat.

As regards the system tray/dock problem, we're in a tight spot there as we follow the KDE standard that says that apps with a dock icon hide to the dock when you close the window - so they're all lost until you add a system tray somehow, JuK, KsCD. How about using a panel/Kicker that autohides, is sized 10% expanding, and only holds a system tray applet?

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Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge)

Posted Mar 31, 2004 1:55 UTC (Wed) by mrshiny (subscriber, #4266) [Link]

Hey, you CAN set custom away messages! That's great, thanks for telling
me.

As for my ideas about the metacontact issue, you're right about the
problem with sending to a metacontact who is sending to me from multiple
accounts. I'm not sure how to best handle this in the UI. But what I DO
know is that it is inconsistent for messages to appear in different chats
but be logged in the same history.

I did figure out how to manually select a protocol for sending by clicking
on the protocol icon, but on my screen the icon is (rightfully) very small
and clicking on it is harder than double-clicking on the contact name. It
would be helpful if when I am in a chat with a user, it indicates which
protocol I am using (wait... I just noticed that the window icon matches
the protocol). It would also be nice to be able to hit a button in the
chat window to switch to another protocol (this could maybe help with the
first issue about metacontacts too). Finally, it would be nice to be able
to set the default protocol, especially for cases like ICQ vs MSN, where I
may want to prefer sending an offline message over ICQ than sending an
online message on MSN. Of course, the number of possible
situations/combinations is endless, but at least being able to specify "If
the user is online with both protocols, use this one first" would be nice.

Finally, regarding the system dock, the reason I do not use the system
dock icon is because I often (say, > 50% of the time) use Kopete from my
work system, which is Windows/cygwin, and thus has no dock (I ssh to my
home computer and run Kopete over the tunnel). The dock icon shows up on
Windows as a tiny, ugly window, that's impossible to use. So I just
turned it off, but the problem is that then the main window can be closed
without terminating the program. I understand the KDE requirements, but
when the dock icon is turned off and the main window closes, there is no
window left with which to control the program. The Licq behaviour is to
terminate the program when the main window closes, unless the dock icon is
turned on, in which case the icon keeps the program alive).