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Adium reaches 1.0: shock and awe...
Drunk_caterpillar
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http://www.adiumx.com
For those of you who do not know, AdiumX is the premier chat application for the Macintosh. Not only that, but some would argue that it is one of those applications that will go down in history as one of the critical facets in the computing experience, like Photoshop or something.
Major Upgrades:
# Functional direct connect and file transfer
# New interface
# Global user profiles
# iTunes "now playing" integration
# Improved privacy management
# Grouping of saved status messages
# Redesigned chat transcript viewer
So yeah, it's kind of pimp. Discuss.
For those of you who do not know, AdiumX is the premier chat application for the Macintosh. Not only that, but some would argue that it is one of those applications that will go down in history as one of the critical facets in the computing experience, like Photoshop or something.
Major Upgrades:
# Functional direct connect and file transfer
# New interface
# Global user profiles
# iTunes "now playing" integration
# Improved privacy management
# Grouping of saved status messages
# Redesigned chat transcript viewer
So yeah, it's kind of pimp. Discuss.
Drunk_caterpillar on
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I'm really hoping for a PC port (some day!) so I can use it when I'm not on my Mac.
It sure is sweet, though.
Yep. It's new.
It's all good so far, what I find funny is that it uses libgaim and yet is miles better than gaim. And why can't there be a windows version im client that uses libgaim (like Adium) and not look like a monkeys posterior?
Gaim on windows using GTK looks naff. (also, if I have gimp AND gaim installed on windows because they both use gtk they break each other if you have them both installed, because they use their own gtk libraries)
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Edit: They did! Finally. 1.0 looks good so far. I like what they did with the chat transcripts viewer. It uses the contact name you have set as opposed to displaying screen names for everyone.
Tell me how those hacks behind aMSN can do video and the Adium people can't.
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The program doesn't crash when apple-P is pushed without a printer plugged in. (I use apple-[ and apple-] to move tabs, so it's no fun to mess that up).
From what I've read on an apple-centric mac forum, the guy who started Adium is a serious Windows hater, so I doubt it'll be ported over.
I love Adium on my Mac. I hate Trillian/GAIM/Miranda on my PC.
I won't even use IM when I'm on my PC. I...just can't. Adium is too nice.
Not yet, from what I can tell. I read that it should be introduced eventually. Apparently, it was something worked on during the Summer of Code. No mention of implementation in 1.0, though.
Is it bad of me that whenever I see someone using the terribly outdated AIM messaging app in class, I just want to go over and say "Hey...adiumx.com. You'll thank me."? Because I can't stand how ugly that thing looks.
Part of the problem with audio/video chat in Adium is that all of the actual communications in Adium are built off of libgaim, which doesn't have support for audio or video yet, as I understand it. So they have to do the work to graft it on itself, which is taking a little while, audio and video chat not being simple problems.
All hyperbole aside, do you really think it would be as good as it is right now if they were trying to develop it simultaneously for two different platforms?
It's a volunteer run project. If they were trying to develop two applications instead of one, each one would be moving about half as quickly, and there's probably very little that could possibly be easily shared between the two platforms in terms of code. Adium gets updates at a snails pace as it is.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Agreed. The most updated cross-platform apps seem to be those that utilize a specific featureset that ignores key aspects of the target OS's interface. Such as Java apps. Personally, that approach only seems to work when the main code is focused on a command-line (or similar) application where some other team takes over the GUI.
I was quite surprised to see this thread. I thought I had auto-update turned on for Adium but hadn't seen the window pop up in ages. Apparently I *did* and it simply didn't get updated in ages. Seems a bit snazzier, and the duck in the dock graphic is a lot better.
The general feeling is that you could spend time coding video, but its a lot of effort for a small population and iChat is going to do it far better anyway.
I agree with this sentiment. Every Adium user should have iChat installed on their machines. For instances when video chat is necessary, it really does not take much to fire it up. For the most part, IM programs are used to, well, IM. I'd rather having a program that does that exceptionally well than does mediocre video and IM.
GAIM is getting video support in version 2.0, which is in late beta now, and I'm assuming that'll end up in libgaim then and in Adium after that.
This, I think, goes back to the "why there's no port" thing. Adium seems to have a very strong design philosophy, which is to do one thing and do it right. Which is why it's as good as it is.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Not at MSN video it isn't, what with it not supporting it. At all.
(would libgaim have anything to do with MSN support anyway?)
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libgaim powers all of the connectivity. So yes, it does have all to do with the MSN support
aMSN has video chat because it is its own project, that only supports MSN.
Did anyone else read the notes? They hid some funny stuff in there.
I now need to check out this amsn program.
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They also automatically self-check for errors by default when they're opened. Also, they aren't usually ran, but rather mounted as a storage device. In order to install a program, often all you have to do is drag the .app file to the Applications folder, or you can run it from wherever you want. Uninstallation is just as easy. I much prefer them to .exe files, despite the occasional leftover support files after uninstallation.
Why is that ironic? In any case they're not installer files per se. .dmg files are "disk images." They merely contain other files -- sometimes it's just an application file which you simply copy over to your applications folder. Other programs come with the actual installer files inside the .dmg.
I love how pretty Adium can be made to look with just a little browsing of the site.
It's because the MSN protocol they use isn't made by them... it's some sort of open source package which also contains jabber and some other kind of support (I think it was).
So, that's a completely separate project, which the Adium guys can't do anything about (or at least, they told me in IRC that they absolutely wouldn't do anything about it).
At least, we have Skype now on OS X, so video in MSN isn't really important anymore.
Also, don't you PC guys have Miranda?
In a round about way, yes. Cocoa doesn't do anything that other languages couldn't achieve, it doesn't include anything that makes it stand out for chat programs.
What Adium had was:
a) A great base package in libgaim
b) Cocoa extensions like WebKit, which lets Adium render the chat interface using CSS.
Cocoa is also as close to a joy to use before you get to Ruby, and even then, nothing comes close to Apple's Interface Builder for rapid UI prototyping. It makes developers want to work in it, which is why Adium is better.
I don't see how to change it.
I wanna new duck.
Preferences -> Appearance. There is a drop-down there of Dock Icons.
That's because there is no core Windows design philosophy. As inconsistent as Apple themselves tend to be in implementing them, the Human Interface Guidelines create a foundation where, for a Mac app, pure functionality isn't enough, but the form must be there as well. Trick is, good design is hard, and it takes a discriminating user base to notice it. The Mac OS is a very small subset of computer users that is largely self-selecting for people who notice exactly those traits, so not only does good interface get noticed, it's demanded. Programs with a crappy interface won't fly with the Mac user base, so that extra work to make it truly elegant is necessary to get noticed.
Windows, by the nature of its very ubiquity, bas no such demand. That's not a criticism of Windows, merely stating that when you have around 90% of the market, your clientele by nature is going to have a broad spectrum of users, and something as relatively refined as good interface design just won't be picked up by the majority of people. So if all that work on a wonderful interface will just get ignored, why bother in the first place? They don't, and that's how you end up with 50 million developers and not an elegant app among them.
This is now a "let's see how awesome we can make adium look" thread.