LWN: Comments on "Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge)"

Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge)

mrshiny — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 01:55:36 +0000

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).

Can Kopete replace GAIM, I hope

robot101 — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 19:25:12 +0000

That's configurable by your window manager...

Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge)

wstephenson — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 13:22:57 +0000

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?

Can Kopete replace GAIM, I hope

zdzichu — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 12:50:42 +0000

That's not good, too. ANY pop up dialog is evil, as they tend to catch me in the middle of typing. No window should ever pop on screen.

Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge)

pointwood — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 11:12:29 +0000

If you're a Jabber user, I would also recommend the PSI client: http://psi.affinix.com/

Can Kopete replace GAIM, I hope

aseigo — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 00:53:47 +0000

it has logging in the new versions ... i use it all the time, for similar
reasons as you apparently =) it's a plugin IIRC, so applies to all
protocols equally...

Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge)

mrshiny — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 22:25:39 +0000

I've recently switched from Licq to Kopete. Kopete seems nice but I find that it has a couple annoying bugs (it never remembers the window or toolbar positions/sizes) and it is missing some features that Licq had. That being said, it does seem to work reasonably well. The multi-protocol thing is very nice; I use the ICQ and MSN protocols and everything works fine. I can't figure out how to customize the away messages permanently, which is annoying. Also, the meta-contact thing, one of Kopete's neatest features, isn't quite perfect. I can't seem to be able to control which account it picks for sending when I double-click on a contact. Also, if a contact sends me a message from two accounts, they appear in different chats, even though the history is logged together. But overall the program is nice enough for me to use.

I would like to see some of its features enhanced, however. Better auto-message (away message) support would be nice... in Licq you can have an away message that is the output of a program. Better support for configuring the appearance of the text in chat windows would be nice... currently you have to edit an xsl file. And most importantly, it needs to better support people who don't use the dock icon. Even with the dock icon disabled, I still have to do File-Quit because clicking on the X in the window closes only the window and leaves the program running. With no dock icon, this means the program is inaccessible and you have to killall kopete.

Can Kopete replace GAIM, I hope

nirik — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 21:52:42 +0000

newer versions of Gaim handle that much better. Now it just pops up one dialog that says you were disconnected and when. You can click reconnect or close. It only puts up that one dialog.

I tried kopete a while back. It seemed nice, but it's lacking one feature I always use: logging. I want log files so I can look up URL's and who said what to me when. Once they add that in I will try it out again. :)

The integration with the KDE "wallet" was nice...

Can Kopete replace GAIM, I hope

aseigo — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 21:41:53 +0000

the vast majority of messages/alerts are handled in Kopete
using "passive popups", which are just little "tooltip"-like windows that
appear near the system tray. very nice way to see messages and info w/out
having your workflow interrupted.

Can Kopete replace GAIM, I hope

rjamestaylor — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 20:50:55 +0000

Does Kopete offer a better interface than Gaim's multi-window cascade of horror (example: when I'm connected to several services and the Internet connection is lost (which happens often as I'm using a laptop) many annoying dialogs alert me several times repeatedly again and again that the connection is lost)? So very annoying... Anyway, I switched to and bought Trillian (on WinXP) rather than use Gaim and look forward to checking out Kopete.

Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge)

bodosom — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 19:25:16 +0000

I've recently switched from Gaim to Kopete but I *really* miss the Jabber typing indicator (I mostly use Jabber on my server).