What should be added to xchat next?

[DjiXas]

Voted for polishing. Already got all the features I want

The only thing which I would like to see is an option to open a private chat instead of whois info when clicking on nickname twice.

Oh, also some stuff with logs, like logs viewer as now it's a pain to check logs, you have to check all the txt files to find then one you want and viewing in .txt is something what I don't like.

One more: when opening chat again and checking some previous messages, would be great to have a link "see full log".

[DjiXas]

Also, you might be interested in polishing check for updates feature, this way is very user unfriendly, check for updates on startup would be also a great new feature.

Also, would like be able to expand topic textbox, as when topic is really long, it's hard to edit something when I can see one line of text only.

Maybe also friendly way to add/remove buttons of X-Chat interface (something like Opera web browser has), would like to remove S, I, P, M and other ones and leave few only...

[jlh]

The only thing which I would like to see is an option to open a private chat instead of whois info when clicking on nickname twice.

Exists already. See Preferences > User List > Action Upon Double Click. Put "QUERY %s" in that field.

Oh, also some stuff with logs, like logs viewer as now it's a pain to check logs, you have to check all the txt files to find then one you want and viewing in .txt is something what I don't like.

If you're on UNIX, then maybe you like my log viewer plugin. It allows you to type /viewlog in a window and it will open the log to that window in an editor of your choice. It might be possible to make it work on windows too, I haven't tried.

Also, would like be able to expand topic textbox, as when topic is really long, it's hard to edit something when I can see one line of text only.

I agree. I always find it difficult to select a subset of the topic line with the mouse, because when when you move out of the field vertically, it selects everything from where you clicked to the end or to the beginning, scrolling around, being confusing... well, try yourself and you'll know what I mean. Topic lines often contain URLs, so this would be useful. But of course it would be more useful if URLs in the topic line would be clickable. (Unless they are already in 2.8.7, haven't tried yet.)

[DjiXas]

The only thing which I would like to see is an option to open a private chat instead of whois info when clicking on nickname twice.

Exists already. See Preferences > User List > Action Upon Double Click. Put "QUERY %s" in that field.

Oh, also some stuff with logs, like logs viewer as now it's a pain to check logs, you have to check all the txt files to find then one you want and viewing in .txt is something what I don't like.

If you're on UNIX, then maybe you like my log viewer plugin. It allows you to type /viewlog in a window and it will open the log to that window in an editor of your choice. It might be possible to make it work on windows too, I haven't tried.

Also, would like be able to expand topic textbox, as when topic is really long, it's hard to edit something when I can see one line of text only.

I agree. I always find it difficult to select a subset of the topic line with the mouse, because when when you move out of the field vertically, it selects everything from where you clicked to the end or to the beginning, scrolling around, being confusing... well, try yourself and you'll know what I mean. Topic lines often contain URLs, so this would be useful. But of course it would be more useful if URLs in the topic line would be clickable. (Unless they are already in 2.8.7, haven't tried yet.)

Wow, thanks. Haven't noticed that, oh well, then I'll vote for more user friendly way to chose what to do on double click

[skiidoo]

More verbose --version output, or a -i --info switch. This might be useful when troubleshooting and asking for help. One might then be able to tell about the whole XChat implementation he uses.

XChat:

$ xchat --version
xchat 2.8.4

Compare with fluxbox:

$ fluxbox -i
Fluxbox version: 1.0.0-gentoo-r2
Compiled: Mar 4 2008 00:33:34
Compiler: GCC
Compiler version: 4.1.2 (Gentoo 4.1.2 p1.0.2)

Defaults:
menu: /usr/share/fluxbox/menu
style: /usr/share/fluxbox/styles/Clean
keys: /usr/share/fluxbox/keys
init: /usr/share/fluxbox/init

Compiled options (- => disabled):
-DEBUG
EWMH
-GNOME
IMLIB2
-KDE
-NLS
REMEMBER
RENDER
SHAPE
SLIT
TOOLBAR
XFT
-XINERAMA
XMB
XPM

So maybe we could have something like:

$ xchat -i
xchat 2.8.4
cfgdir: ~/.xchat2/

Plugins: Tcl, Perl, Python
Tcl: 8.4.18
Perl: 5.8.8
Python: 2.4.4

And similar useful informations.

[nob0dy]

Configurable location of conf files/directory. (through GUI)

[LifeIsPain]

Configurable location of conf files/directory. (through GUI)

I'm not quite sure how this would work. The only way I could see this working would be to still save inside of .xchat2 or %AppData%, but have one file that, if it exists, points to a different location. The downside of this is that if someone does use the -u option, XChat would need to remember both the command line provided directory, as well as what is saved in that special file. Logistically, it doesn't help things out.

The reason you would still have to save in .xchat2 or %AppData% is that it is only safe to assume you could write to your home directory, so you wouldn't be able to save within program files or /usr/. Also, you would need to deal with multiple users, as you most likely wouldn't want them all saving to the same conf.

[Warpath]

Well for me it has alwayz been more emoticons similar to those on this forum like a bit like Chatzilla which includes ( , , , , , and ) i'm not sure if its doable but added as an extension to the eye-candy theme might be useful so those that don't want it, don't have to use it whereas if they do, they can install theses extra eye-candies

[peterz]

Well for me it has alwayz been more emoticons similar to those on this forum like a bit like Chatzilla which includes ( , , , , , and ) i'm not sure if its doable but added as an extension to the eye-candy theme might be useful so those that don't want it, don't have to use it whereas if they do, they can install theses extra eye-candies

Want to draw them for me? I can't just copy phpBB's, they might be copyrighted.

[nob0dy]

Configurable location of conf files/directory. (through GUI)

I'm not quite sure how this would work. The only way I could see this working would be to still save inside of .xchat2 or %AppData%, but have one file that, if it exists, points to a different location. The downside of this is that if someone does use the -u option, XChat would need to remember both the command line provided directory, as well as what is saved in that special file. Logistically, it doesn't help things out.

The reason you would still have to save in .xchat2 or %AppData% is that it is only safe to assume you could write to your home directory, so you wouldn't be able to save within program files or /usr/. Also, you would need to deal with multiple users, as you most likely wouldn't want them all saving to the same conf.

hm, ok, that make sense.. still, there could be option how you want to store conf files, either default way in %AppData% or to install dir (so not fully configurable) ... i have seen this option in e.g. foobar2000, it would provide some better portability to this great app

[MrStatic]

1.) a. Notify alerts with hostmask/IP and network - * Nick (ident@host) [Network] is Online

I think this is not possible, since it's not supported by the IRC protocol. At least the ISON command as defined in the RFC can't do that. Some (maybe many) servers have the WATCH command whic xchat apparently uses when available but for which I found no formal specs, and which doesn't seem to support this either.

Or use the ison still and simply who the nick after we confirm they are on

[jlh]

1.) a. Notify alerts with hostmask/IP and network - * Nick (ident@host) [Network] is Online

I think this is not possible, since it's not supported by the IRC protocol. At least the ISON command as defined in the RFC can't do that. Some (maybe many) servers have the WATCH command whic xchat apparently uses when available but for which I found no formal specs, and which doesn't seem to support this either.

Or use the ison still and simply who the nick after we confirm they are on

This only works if you want to be alerted about a certain nick with a certain host. (In which case you could really just be alerted by nickname and be happy with that.) If you want to be alerted about a certain host, regardless of the nick it's using, then this won't work.

[TRB-2]

I would like to see a multi-threaded xchat tbh. When I start xchat on my windows computer it freezes up for around 5 minutes while it loads all my different networks/channels/plugins. I can see under process explorer that xchat.exe is using 25% of my cpu (quad core intel).

[Khisanth]

That sounds like you have a script/plugin loading on startup that is doing a lot processing. xchat takes less than a second to start here.

[TRB-2]

That sounds like you have a script/plugin loading on startup that is doing a lot processing. xchat takes less than a second to start here.

It takes slightly less time when I disable all my plugins. At startup it connects to a BNC for 9 different SSL networks, each with ~10 channels.