view README.CVS @ 9417:9f6a28af7164

[gaim-migrate @ 10232] " IDLETRACK.DLL uses Windows hooks to record the last time the user pressed a key or moved the mouse. Windows hooks are a bit unfriendly in that they force the hook DLL into every process - so IDLETRACK.DLL gets added to every process after Gaim runs. This can mean that IDLETRACK.DLL doesn't get unloaded when Gaim stops, which causes a warning about being unable to write to IDLETRACK.DLL if you then upgrade Gaim. Further, hooking is a common tactic employed by key loggers. If the user has a program installed that checks for global hooks then it will warn the user that Gaim may contain a key logger. From Windows 2000 onwards Microsoft introduced an API function called GetLastInputInfo that returns the timer tick at the point that the user last pressed a key or moved the mouse. I have changed idletrack.c so that it will try to use this if it can, which avoids all the ugliness of having to use hooks, but it will fall back to using hooks if the function isn't present. This patch changes all three exported functions in idletrack.c. In wgaim_set_idlehooks it checks to see if GetLastInputInfo is present. If it is then the address of the function is recorded and no hooks are set. If it isn't then we're running on an old verison of Windows and the hooks are set as per current behaviour. In wgaim_remove_idlehooks the module handle taken for USER32.DLL by wgaim_set_idlehooks is released. In wgaim_get_lastactive the GetLastInputInfo function is called, if present. If it isn't present then the hooks will have run and the shared memory they write to will be read as per current behaviour. Both methods end up getting the timer tick of the last user activity, which is returned as per current behaviour." --Andrew Whewell committer: Tailor Script <[e-mail]>

If you plan to use gaim CVS, PLEASE read this message in its entirety!

Gaim is a fast-moving project with a somewhat regular release schedule.  
Due to the rate of gaim development, CVS undergoes frequent bursts of 
massive changes, often leaving behind brokenness and partial 
functionality while the responsible developers rewrite some portion of 
code or seek to add new features.

What this all boils down to is that CVS _WILL_ sometimes be broken.
Because of this, we ask that users who are not interested in
personally tracking down bugs and fixing them (without a lot of
assistance from the developers!) avoid CVS and use releases.  Since
releases will be made often, this should not prevent anyone from using
the newest, shiniest features -- but it will prevent users from having
to deal with ugly development bugs that we already know about but
haven't gotten around to fixing.

If you are interested in hacking on gaim, please read README and
HACKING, and take note of the issues in PROGRAMMING_NOTES.  (Note that
they may be somewhat out of date at times.) Win32 developers, please
read README.mingw.

By far the best documentation, however, is the documented code.  Not
all parts of gaim have yet been documented, but the major subsystems
are falling fast.  If you have doxygen, you can use the Doxyfile in
the toplevel directory to generate pretty documentation.  Otherwise
(or even if you do!), the header files for each subsystem contain
documentation for the functions they contain.  For instance,
conversation.h contains documentation for the entire
gaim_conversation_* API, and account.h contains documentation for the
gaim_account_* API.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact the gaim developers
by email at [e-mail], on IRC at
irc.freenode.net in #gaim, or via the sourceforge forums at
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/gaim.  Please do as much homework
as you can before contacting us; the more you know about your
question, the faster and more effectively we can help you!

Send patches to [e-mail] or post them in the
Sourceforge forums at http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/gaim.