'Re: [Kopete-devel] Article about kopete'

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List: kopete-devel
Subject: Re: [Kopete-devel] Article about kopete
From: Jason Keirstead <jason () keirstead ! org>
Date: 2003-08-15 16:09:25
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On August 14, 2003 08:27 am, Alejandro Exojo wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> After using kopete for a while, I decided to write an article about it. I
> wrote it in spanish, and also tried an english translation. The \
> translation is not as good as I wanted to be, but maybe someone wants to \
> review it, and correct some mistakes.
> 
> The article in english:
> http://www.badopi.org/node.php?id=181
> And in spanish:
> http://es.kde.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=129
> 
> If you want the HTML source (for feedback, etc.) you can get it from \
> here: http://lacurva.net/articulos/kopete07.en.html
> http://lacurva.net/articulos/kopete07.html

Hello.

I attached a cleaned-up English translation I did quickly. All I did was
make it a bit more coherent,  I did not fix the mistake sin what you said.
But a few comments on these:

- You make a pont that Instant Messaging is different from IRC. In reality \
it is not, IRC is just another instant messaging protocol. This is \
especially apparant in Kopete, where there is no visbile difference between \
an IRC chat and any other group chat, and no difference between an IRC \
query and any other instant message.

- You say that you can only connect to one IRC server at a time, which is \
not true. Kopete 0.7 lets you add as many IRC accounts as you want. I am \
connected to three servers right now!

- The Return key does not send the message by default for several reasons:
	- CTRL+Enter is the KDE default for sending a message, as shown in KMail \
                and KNode
	- Many people like to compose multi line messages, which is much easier \
                with Enter as newline
	- There are just as many protocols whose native clients use Enter as \
newline ( ICQ, Yahoo, some  Jabber clients ) as use it to send (IRC, MSN ), \
so there is no reason Enter should be favoured.

- The XSL stylesheets aren't really meant for the user to edit, except for \
advanced users. Most users should use the Import button, which lets you \
import a .xsl file directly. Plans are in place to place some styles on the \
Kopete site for import.

-- 
Jason Keirstead, BCS
http://www.keirstead.org

["kopete07.en.html" (text/html)]

<title>Kopete: instant messaging for KDE</title>

Through <a href="http://es.kde.org/">KDE hispano</a>, and thanks to \
Pedro Jurado, I was made aware of <a \
href="http://es.kde.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=126">Kopete's 0.7 \
release</a>. After playing with it for a few days, I decided to \
write a few lines about this software. This is a translation of an article \
in Spanish. I hope you can forgive me for my poor English ;-).

<p>Hay una <a href="">versión en castellano del artículo</a> en <a \
href="http://es.kde.org/">KDE Hispano</a>, i una altra <a href="">versió en \
català</a> a <a href="http://bulmalug.net/">Bulma</a>

<h4>Instant Messaging</h4>
<p>When we hear these words, we think of a protocol that allows a client (a \
user) to receive chat-like messages (not longer messages as in emails), \
nearly instantaneusly.</p>

The difference, when compared to IRC, is that you will not receive \
messages from "anyone" (e.g., someone connected to the same IRC channel as \
you), rather, you normally communicate only (at first) with those people \
that you have in your contact list. There are a lot of IM (Instant \
Messaging) protocols. A very popular one, mainly because it was the first, \
is <a href="http://icq.com/">ICQ</a> (`I Seek You`). Recently others have \
started to appear that are actually much more popular, like America \
Online's one, <a href="http://www.aim.com/">AIM</a>, which is not very \
known here (writer lives in <a \
href="http://www.bcn.es/english/ihome.htm">Barcelona</a>), but seems \
very popular in the US. As far as I know, here and in latin-america, the \
most popular is <a href="http://messenger.msn.com/">MSN</a>, which \
unfortunately, is the <a \
href="http://www.euronet.nl/users/frankvw/IhateMS.html">not very loved \
company</a>'s protocol.

As <a href="http://www.badopi.org/node.php?id=58">Carles has written</a> \
(article in catalan), <a href="http://jabber.org/">Jabber</a>, is a \
standard protocol for Instant Messaging. This means that \
the protocol is a common protocol such as <acronym title="Hyper Text \
Transfer Protocol">HTTP</acronym>, <acronym title="File Transfer \
Protocol">FTP</acronym>, or <acronym title="Internet Message Access \
Protocol">IMAP</acronym>. The most visible advantadge with Jabber is the \
ability of using whatever program we prefer to use the protocol (the same \
as we can choose the browser that we prefer, or the email client that we \
most like).

In free software, we also have freedom of choice. For example, even when \
only using MSN, we could use <a \
href="http://amsn.sourceforge.net/">Alvaro's Messenger</a>, <a \
href="http://kmess.sourceforge.net/">kmess</a>, kmerlin, msn4lin, and \
others. Along that note, some projects started to include in their features \
support for more than one protocol. So, we now have <a \
href="http://gaim.sourceforge.net/">GAIM</a>, a very popular client for \
communicating with everyone, in a <a \
href="http://bulmalug.net/body.phtml?nIdNoticia=740">Universal Messanging \
System</a> (article in spanish), or <a \
href="http://kopete.kde.org/">Kopete</a>, which I will describe.

<h4>Features of kopete 0.7</h4>
<ul>
<li>Support of many protocols using plugins:<br />
<img src="http://lacurva.net/capturas/kopete07-plugins.png"></li>
	<ul>
	<li>Jabber</li>
	<li>ICQ</li>
	<li>AIM</li>
	<li>MSN</li>
	<li>Yahoo</li>
	<li>IRC</li>
	<li>Windows LANs</li>
	<li>GaduGadu</li>
	<li>IRC</li>
	<li>SMS</li>
	</ul>
<li>Features can be enabled or disabled at your convenience, also using \
plugins:</li>  <ul>
	<li>Autoaway (changes your state when idle)</li>
	<li>Autoreplace (allows you change abreviated words for its complete form; \
totally customizable)</li>  <li>Cryptography (use of <a \
href="http://www.gnupg.org/">GnuPG</a> for making your messages more \
private)</li>  <li>Text effect (allow customize colors, l4m3r writing, cAse \
cHAngEs)</li>  <li>"Now listening..." (tells your buddies what music are \
you listening to)</li>  <li>Highlight (plays sounds, changes text format, \
etc. when someone mentions your name, or some words you can choose)</li>  \
<li>History (keeps a list of messages sent and received)</li>  <li>Spell \
checker (correkts som misteiks ;-) )</li>  <li>Translation (translates \
incoming and outcoming messages)</li>  <li>Web presence (creates a web page \
with a list of your connected members)</li>  </ul>
<li>Kopete can be docked into Kicker's system tray (like Klipper).</li>
<li>You can allow pop-ups to appear when someone logs in: <br /><img \
src="http://lacurva.net/capturas/kopete07-popup.png" alt="pop up \
image"></li> <li>Every protocol is managed individually through the icons \
below. This allows you be invisible (or away, or offline) to your msn \
contacts, and visible for the jabber ones.</li> <li>Supports a lot of \
smiley sets, you can choose ;-), and colors are very customizable (it \
supports also transluency), allowing you to choose one color to distinguish \
each protocol.</li> <li>A wizard helps you to create and manage each \
account easily.</li> <li>Offline login (everyone believes you are offline, \
but you aren't).</li> <li>File transfer.</li>
</ul>

Unfortunately, Kopete is not perfect, but <a \
href="http://kopete.kde.org/index.php?page=developers">many people</a> are \
working on it :-). The IRC plugin needs to be improved, because it only \
allows you to connect to one server, and fankly, it needs to correct its \
behaviour a bit. Some details are a bit odd, for example, when pressing \
<kbd>return</kbd>, you start a new line, instead of sending the written \
message. It can be changed in your shortcuts very easily, but this is \
something a newbie is not going to find. There are also a lot of <a \
href="http://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?product=kopete">bugs</a>. The \
appearance of message windows is very customizable, but it is done in <a \
href="http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL/">XSL</a> (eXtensible Stylesheet \
Language), a very powerful and standard language, but it is not very \
popular, and it is not specially easy. Definitively, Kopete is \
starting to be a mature application that, once released with KDE, will be \
its default instant messaging application. If you still have some doubts, \
look at <a href="http://kopete.kde.org/index.php?page=screenshots">the \
screenshots</a>.

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