Mercurial > pidgin
view doc/FAQ @ 36:7c6334dfab2b
[gaim-migrate @ 45]
Why the heck was this here :0
committer: Tailor Script <tailor@pidgin.im>
author | Rob Flynn <gaim@robflynn.com> |
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date | Sat, 25 Mar 2000 05:39:01 +0000 |
parents | 2846a03bda67 |
children | f90b022235fe |
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GAIM: The Pimpin' Penguin IM Clone Thats Good For The Soul Here's the FAQ. PLEASE don't bother me about anything on this list. You will be ignored or pointed at the FAQ -- I have been extremely short of time lately! Feel free to contact any of us with praise or ideas. If you have ideas or bug problems, please use email, because I like to keep records of that kinda stuff and I don't log all my conversations. Enjoy gaim! - Jim Duchek <jimduchek@ou.edu> I. The Protocol 1. Is it the same protocol as the Windows client uses? 2. Where can I find info on it? 3. What other clients use this protocol? 4. TCP or UDP? 5. So the buddy list is stored on the server? II. The Client 1. What does 'gaim' stand for? 2. How do I make multiple groups? 3. How come there's no file transfer? 4. Why no AOL logo? 5. Where are my log files stored? 6. Can I use my Windows 95 Buddylist with Gaim? 7. I'm not a native English speaker and I would like a translated version of gaim. 8. I've got a proxy, and I'd like to use GAIM. III. Problems 1. WAAAAAH! My sound doesn't work! 2. My buddy list disappeared! 3. I click on URLs, but Netscape doesn't popup! 4. I don't use Netscape. 5. I'm using the GNOME client. I have a bug. 6. I have a bug not described here. 7. I have Mandrake 6.0 and GAIM doesnt work! IV. Programming 1. I have a patch for gaim! 2. Can you teach me how to program GTK? V. Miscellaneous 1. Can I talk to you on IM? 2. I want to write an IM client. Will you help me? 3. I have money. I need some software written. Can you help? 4. I have hardware here that's not being used, or money. Can you use it? 5. I would like to send you beer. 6. Are you going to port this thing to Windows? 7. Why the GPL? 8. I use *BSD and I hate the penguin! I want daemon images! 9. Can I design a logo for you? 10. What is a wagii? 11. Speaking of the penguin, I heard a rumour you have a tattoo of it. Is that true? 12. What Window Manager do you use? What distribution do you use? What other stupid things can you ask me that don't really matter but ya'll ask me anyway? 13. Is XX a good Harddrive, YY a good monitor and ZZ a good CPU? 14. Who designed the new logo? 15. I want to contribute to the effort. Where can I send beer to? I. The Protocol 1. Is it the same protocol as the Windows client uses? No. The Windows client uses Oscar, which is proprietary and undocumented. Some people have used network tools and such to figure it mostly out -- Look for 'faim'. We use TOC, which is completely open and documented. 2. Where can I find info on it? Go to <http://www.aim.aol.com/tik> and download a copy of TiK. In it you will find a document called PROTOCOL which describes the protocol in full. 3. What other clients use this protocol? Go to <http://www.aim.aol.com/tik>. There is a list there. 4. TCP or UDP? TCP. 5. So the buddy list is stored on the server? Yep. II. The Client 1. What does 'gaim' stand for? It's basically the letter 'g' tacked on to the beginning of 'AIM' (which is fairly obvious). G stands for all sorts of good things. Girls, Godzilla, GTK, graham crackers, whatever. 2. How do I make multiple groups? When adding a new buddy, you just type in a new group name. Future versions intend to handle this and renaming groups better. 3. How come there's no file transfer? The TOC server doesn't (yet) support file transfer. Be patient! It is coming. 4. Why no AOL logo? AOL's legal staff told us no-no. 5. Where are my log files stored? After you select `log all conversations' you may be wondering where your log files are stored. Well, they are currently, by default, stored under $HOME/.gaim/YourScreenName/. If your screen name is Zilding then you will find your logs under: $HOME/.gaim/Zilding/. This will eventually become configurable. 6. Can I use my Windows 95 buddylist with Gaim? Well, you are in luck. As of the 0.9.5 release there is a small perl script called 'buddytrans' that is included with the distribution. If you installed the RPM copy of GAIM then you can find the script in /usr/bin/buddytrans. The correct script syntax is: buddytrans buddy.lst gaim.list. You can then import `gaim.list' from inside gaim. This will eventually be fully incorporated into GAIM and the script will no longer be needed. 7. I'm not a native English speaker and I would like a translated version of gaim. By all means, IM me at 'Zilding' or email me at jimduchek@ou.edu. I'm working on standard GNU locale support for the next version of gaim, and I'm going to need translations. If you can do a translation for us, I'd greatly appreciate it! Just let me know and I'll give you detailed instructions on how to do it. 8. I'm behind a proxy, and I'd like to use GAIM. Well, I'm planning to add more 'real' proxy support in the future, but it's not all that high on my priority list. For now, try changing the two PORT defines in gaim.h to 21 -- The TOC server listens on ALL ports, and a lot of proxy servers allow port 21 to pass through. III. Problems 1. WAAAAAH! My sound doesn't work! ./configure should autodetect whether or not you have ESD libraries. If you have them it _WILL_ compile with them, if not it won't. If it compiles with them, you don't need to be running the ESD daemon, it'll automatically fallback to using /dev/dsp. Make sure that gaim has proper permissions to talk to /dev/dsp and /dev/audio though! 2. My buddy list disappeared! You didn't back up your buddy list, did you? You never back anything up! Oh well. The TOC server loses lists from time to time, it happens to me as well. (And no, I never have a backup ;). I intend to support saving lists on your own computer in the future. 3. I click on URLs, but Netscape doesn't popup! Netscape either needs to be running on the current display (gaim should handle remote netscape windows OK.), or 'netscape' needs to be in your path. 4. I don't use Netscape. I'm very interested in supporting other web browsers. Do send me information on how to send a URL to your browser remotely (or point me at the source to the browser, I might be able to figure it out.). 5. I'm using the GNOME client. I have a bug. Too smeggin' bad. :) I personally do NOT write any of the GNOME code. If you find bugs in the GNOME client, I will accept emails describing these bugs, so I can pass them on to the correct person. I will also accept PATCHES to fix these bugs (but not like any of y'all ever do anything but whine about bugs anyway, who am I kidding ;). If you IM me whining about a GNOME bug, you will probably be ignored. 6. I have a bug not described here. Well, it could be a few things. Firstly, you MUST HAVE GTK+ VERSION 1.2.3 installed! Please state in any bug report that you ARE using 1.2.3, otherwise you have a chance of being ignored. With that said ;) email me at jimduchek@ou.edu, I would like to hear your bug reports (but please, not your problems installing GTK). 7. I have Mandrake 6.0 and GAIM doesnt work! Bob Meyer <meyer_rm@yahoo.com> writes: Here's the solution: * Get esound-0.2.12-4mdk.i586.rpm and esound-devel-0.2.12-4mdk.i586.rpm from any Mandrake mirror. * rpm --upgrade esound-0.2.12-4mdk.i586.rpm * rpm -- upgrade esound-devel-0.2.12-4mdk.i586.rpm Don't use EVIL 'updates' tool. It's broke.. really bad. Mandrake 6.1, with its newer libraries, appears to fix this problem. IV. Programming 1. I have a patch for gaim! Nice. Think about your patch though. First, does it have to do with AIM? I won't apply patches for stock tickers, search engines, etc. We're working on plug-ins if you really want bloat like that. Second, is it useful? A lot of patches I get are horribly unuseful except in very specific situations (ie YOUR situation). Thirdly, your code will not retain your copyright. All code submitted must be protected by the GPL and the copyright will be given to Mark Spencer. If you don't like this, don't send me your patches. You will be given authorship credit, don't worry -- I just want a homogenous copyright on the program. Lastly, does your code match the coding style already present in gaim? I like my brackets where I like them. I do NOT like, in fact I positively HATE, I DESPISE, with a PASSION, the convention of variablesLikeThis. And functionsLikeThis. If you do that, fine. It's great. But guess what? This is C. C programmers don't write like that. I don't write like that. I don't want to READ code like that. I want a homogenous coding style on this program, and it's gonna be MY coding style. :) Now, if you've managed to get through all that and I haven't discouraged you entirely, my email address is jimduchek@ou.edu, you can send your patches there. 2. Can you teach me how to program GTK? Yes, I can. But no, I'm not going to. There's a really nice tutorial at http://www.gtk.org. If you're a fairly experienced programmer, and you get stuck on something odd, IM me, I'm usually happy to help. If you had a little BASIC experience in high school and are having trouble making a button widget do anything when you click it, buy a book on C and read the damn GTK tutorial, I'm a busy person. V. Miscellaneous 1. Can I talk to you on IM? Sure. My IM name is Zilding. The rest of the crew's IM names can be found in various places. Keep in mind though, I'm a very busy person. This IM name is used for friends as well as for gaim (I don't just log this guy in when I want to talk to gaim people). So please, don't IM me just to chat, or to answer various Linux questions. I'd like to be able to answer everyone's questions on whatever (I usually do know the answer, or at least where to find it!) but I just don't have time. Things like this will usually be ignored. Other things to keep in mind when talking to me: Don't start off with 'I have a gaim question', 'Can I ask a question?', 'Hello?', 'Are you there?', 'Is this the gaim guy?', 'gaim doesn't work', 'I can't get gaim to compile' or anything else like that. Why? If you'll notice in all of the above statements, nothing useful has been said. I'm often away from my computer. I suggest if you are having a serious problem or you have a question, just ASK THE QUESTION, right off, I don't require any preliminary stuff. Simply sending me "gaim segfaults when I do 'blah blah click blah'" to start a conversation is fine -- I don't consider it rude, please just ask the question. If I don't answer within a few minutes, leave your email address, I will get back to you sooner or later. Lastly, do NOT abbreviate 'you' as 'u', 'are' as 'r', 'to' as '2', 'for' as '4', or any of those other annoying AOLisms. They bother me greatly, and as I work long hours and am an insomniac (probably because I'm such a mean bastard ;), I'm likely to make fun of you, or more likely ignore you completely. I don't require perfect English but it'd be nice. 2. I want to write an IM client. Will you help me? No, unless you're writing one commercially. Email me for rates -- I'm not all that expensive. :) 3. I have money. I need some software written. Can you help? Oh yes. My email address is jimduchek@ou.edu, my IM is Zilding. 4. I have hardware that's not being used, or money. Can you use it? Almost always. I'm a broke college student. We're all broke here. Flat busted. Money would always help. If you have some useful equipment (or even useless equipment! I like old mainframes and workstations ;), do send it to us! I might be able to scratch together shipping money even. :) 5. I would like to send you beer. OK. 6. Are you going to port this thing to Windows? I've been mulling it over and playing with cygwin on the tiny Windows partition I do have on my laptop (It's required for school), but I'm not sure yet. I actually do have a version of gaim running on it now, as of 7/20. However, the Win32 port of GTK has some issues that need to be resolved before I can even attempt to release this. Some of my WIN32 patches are included in this release, usually under an #ifdef _WIN32 (which cygwin and I think other windows compilers set). 7. Why the GPL? I like the GPL. 8. I use *BSD and I hate the penguin! I want daemon images! I do have a nice pixmap of the daemon, and one of these days I will do a second set of buttons. You'll have to wait (or send me button pixmaps yourself). I still don't understand why ya'll hate the penguin though, maybe it's just jealousy cause our OS gets all the media attention? I kinda like the daemon :) 9. Can I design a logo for you? Sure! Do your best. Entries may be emailed to: gaimlogo@blueridge.net. After we get a nice supply of entries we'll sort through them and pick the winner. 10. What is a wagii? Interesting question that you ask, there. `Wagii' is the official celebratory cry of gaim. Anytime you are feeling happy or excited, just remember all of the hard work that we have done to provide you with this wonderful, free piece of software -- as the pure, raw, emotion flows through you, maybe you too will let out the cry of -- Wagii. Its also the sound a Penguin Samurai makes :) 11. Speaking of the penguin, I heard a rumour you have a tattoo of it. Is that true? Hehe. Yes, that is true. He's on my left upper arm. If you'd like to see a picture, visit <http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker/tux/doc/>. It's a 'history of Tux' and there's a pic of my tattoo at the bottom. A pic of my tattoo is also in the LIMP, and linux.remotepoint.com. There's also a picture of the two matching Tux tattoos that a husband and wife have in there. I've heard a rumour someone at Red Hat has one as well. BTW -- no, it really didn't hurt, and yes, I was sober ;) 12. What Window Manager do you use? What distribution do you use? What other stupid things can you ask me that don't really matter but ya'll ask me anyway? I use WindowMaker, without any GNOME or KDE bits. I don't really use a distro, per se, as it used to be a Red Hat distro a long time ago, but since then I've custom-installed by hand from one hard drive to another, so it really doesn't resemble Red Hat anymore, and I've written most of the rc. scripts from scratch. Please don't ask me Red Hat questions, also I hate it when people assume that Red Hat == Linux. 13. Is XX a good harddrive, YY a good monitor, and ZZ a good CPU? Hmm, we're kinda poor so we cant be positive... if you wanna send us some hardware we'll use it though and tell you how good it is *wink* 14. Who designed the new logo? A good guy named Naru Sundar. 15. I want to contribute to the effort. Where can I send beer to? IM Zilding or email him at jimduchek@ou.edu.