annotate README @ 16083:f2a4b05407d7

Patch from shlomil in ticket #78. This fixes RTL text support in MSN, and lays the framework so it could be supported in other prpls as well. As added pluses, shlomil removed some duplicate code and fixed some small related bugs. committer: Richard Laager <[e-mail]>

Purple, Pidgin and Finch
========================
See AUTHORS and COPYRIGHT for the list of contributors.

libpurple is a library intended to be used by programmers seeking
to write an IM client that connects to many IM networks.  It supports
AIM, ICQ, Jabber, MSN and Yahoo!, among others.

Pidgin is an graphical IM client written in C which uses the GTK+
toolkit.

Finch is a text-based IM client written in C which uses the ncurses
toolkit.

These programs are not endorsed by, nor affiliated with, AOL nor any
other company in any way.

BUILD
=====

Read the 'INSTALL' file for more detailed directions.

These programs use the standard ./configure ; make. You need to use
gmake, BSD make probably won't work. Remember, run ./configure --help
to see what build options are available.

In order to compile Pidgin you need to have GTK+ 2.0 installed (as
well as the development files!). The configure script will fail if you
don't.  If you don't have GTK+ 2.0 installed, you should install it
using your distribution's package management tools.

For sound support, you also need gstreamer 0.10 or higher. For
spellchecking support, you need libgtkspell (http://gtkspell.sf.net/).
Your distro of choice probably already includes these, just be sure to
install the development packages.

RUN
===

You should run 'make install' as root to make sure plugins and other files
get installed into locations they want to be in. Once you've done that,
you only need to run 'pidgin' or 'finch'.

Protocol plugins (PRPLs) are now automatically loaded. Simply go to the
account editor, add a new account, and all supported protocols will be
there. Be sure to use OSCAR (AIM/ICQ) and not the old TOC or ICQ plugins.

Read below for protocol-specific information.


PLUGINS
=======

If you do not wish to enable the plugin support within Purple, run the
./configure script with the --disable-plugins option and recompile your
source code.  This will prevent the ability to load plugins.

'make install' puts the plugins in $PREFIX/lib/purple (PREFIX being what
you specified when you ./configure'd - it defaults to /usr/local). Purple
looks for the plugins in that directory by default, but they do not have
to be there to use them. Also, plugins have a .so extension by default,
though they do not have to.

To build a plugin from a .c file, put it in the plugins/ directory in
the source and run 'make filename.so', e.g. if you have the .c file
'kickass.c', put it in the plugins/ directory, and from that directory,
run 'make kickass.so'.


NOTES
=====

If you manually set a command for your browser or sound player options,
make sure to put double-quotes around the "%s", otherwise bad things may
happen.

If you come across a bug, please report it to http://pidgin.im/.


PROTOCOL INFORMATION
====================

Each protocol is hacked by both Rob and Eric, though there is one person
that kind of "owns" a protocol (mostly indicating that they were the
person that originally wrote it). Their name will be next to the protocol;
they're the people to complain to when something doesn't work ;).


TOC (Mark)
===

You shouldn't use TOC, you should use Oscar instead. TOC can sync your
buddy list with the server (if it's not too long), and can respond to file
transfer requests (both sending and receiving). Other than that, there's
nothing it can do that Oscar can't, yet. The TOC protocol doesn't allow
retrieval of away messages; isn't capable of sending or receiving buddy
icons; it also can't make file transfer requests.


Oscar (Mark)
=====

Oscar is the default protocol. It is recommended that you use Oscar for
both AIM and ICQ, as TOC isn't very featureful and the old ICQ protocol no
longer works.

For AIM, Oscar can get people's away messages. It can request and accept
Direct Connections, and has limited support for file transfer. IM Image
does not currently work. It can send and receive buddy icons if you have
GdkPixbuf.

For ICQ, it supports nearly everything that the old ICQ plugin supported,
which isn't much. To use Oscar for ICQ, enter your ICQ UIN as the
screenname. The default host/port will work. You'll need to use a different
client to register a new ICQ account if you don't have one yet.


Yahoo (Sean)
=====

Yahoo is currently using the new YMSG protocol that newer official Yahoo
clients are using. This protocol is much better than the old one, and
tends to be somewhat more reliable. However, the Yahoo service is still
flaky at best.


IRC (Ethan)
===

There are three ways to join an IRC chat room. The first is the File->Join
A Chat menu option in the Buddy List window. The second is the "Chat"
button at the bottom of the buddy list. The third is to type "/join #name"
in an IM window where the "Send Message As" menu is set to your IRC
account. There are other / commands that work in IM and Chat windows for
IRC, /help will give you a list of them.


MSN
===

With MSN you can join a conversation with several people, but you can't
invite people from the IM window yet.


Jabber (Nathan)
======

Transports aren't currently supported at all, though if you have a
transport already subscribed Purple will use it (you can't add or remove
transports though). In order to use a server other than jabber.org, set
your username to include the server, e.g. [e-mail]. This
is the actual format of the Jabber ID anyway; Jabber is email with online
notification. You can register a new Jabber account by checking the
appropriate box in the account editor for your Jabber account.


Zephyr (Sean)
======

Let me start off by saying how much I really despise Zephyr. They do a
lot of things that make me realize why this never caught on. For those
of you who are unfortunate enough to feel compelling need to use this,
Purple now has a Zephyr plugin. It can currently sign on/off, handles
presence/buddy lists (it even imports your .anyone file!), and can
send/receive personal messages. A lot of stuff is missing, this is just
a real rough first stab at it.


Gadu-Gadu (Sean)
=========

I really shouldn't be taking credit for Gadu-Gadu, I'm just the person who
commits the patches that Arkadiusz Miskiewicz gives me. Gadu-Gadu is an IM
system most similar to ICQ that is quite popular in Poland. It can manage
your server-side buddy list through the Protocol Actions menu. You'll need
to use a different client to register a new account if you don't have one
yet.