Gaim news

Beta 3: What goes up must fall down?

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Great day in the park, we've released Gaim 2.0.0 beta 3. You know the drill--you can find assorted builds on our sourceforge page. We'd like to note that none of the beta 3 RPMs include a Gadu-Gadu protocol plugin. So if you need Gadu-Gadu then you should stick with beta 2. And as my pappy always used to say: don't hitch your wagon to a stump if it has eyes. We never did know what he was talking about. * Update - April 4th, 2006 - 7:10PM CST * Known bug: On Windows, timestamps are wrong in the log viewer. They're improperly offset depending on your timezone. This bug is purely a display issue. The logs are still tagged correctly, so in the next release, everything will display properly.

Beta 2: The Sequel to Beta

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

We're basically refining crude oil into a usable product. Only instead of refining crude oil, we're making Gaim better. But it's really the same thing. Really. Please grab beta 2 and let us know what you think. With any luck we won't need to make any major changes, and Gaim 2.0.0 final will be out before you can prove the theory of special relativity. * Update - January 24th, 2006 - 5:32PM EST * Gaim 2.0.0 beta 2 does not include voice or video ("vv") support for any protocols. We've done some work toward vv compatibility for Google Talk, but it isn't ready for the general public yet. It is unlikely this will change for the final release of Gaim 2.0.0, but vv will be a primary focus for the next major release of Gaim after that. * Update - January 27th, 2006 - 5:59PM CST * Known bugs:

Sorting the buddy list by status is broken in Gaim 2.0.0 beta 2. The next release, be it beta 3 or the final 2.0.0, will have this bug fixed.
Duplicate saved statuses show up in the status selector.
Some people are experiencing sound playback issues on Linux when using libao. Using the Command method or copying the sound files from beta1 are both workarounds. We're looking into this.

Flooded in Feedback

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Wow! We've all been completely swamped in feedback since Saturday's beta release. I'm personally surprised how positive it is as a whole. We've gotten a ton of really well-founded gripes, but I think generally people are liking the direction we're going with Gaim 2.0.0. Also important to note is that there are a bunch of things we had suspected were bad or weren't sure about, and we've been able to gauge everyone's opinions about them. On that note, please keep your feedback coming, but there are a few recurring reports we definitely already know about and are working on that you don't need to let us know about anymore:

The per-account statusboxes are a bad idea
The statusboxes in general are too big.
We intentionally removed more preferences than we should have, to see which ones absolutely can't be lived without. Some of them (e.g. Show idle times in buddy list, report idle time by Gaim usage) need to be ressurected
Saved statuses need to be easier to get to
Smooth scroll needs to be optional; people are very polar about how they feel about the smooth scroll
Control-enter, though still optional (see the faq), is not particularly easy to find and should perhaps be added to the gaimrc plugin.

I'm sure there are a bunch of other common themes I'm forgetting about here. The other Gaim developers and I will be sure to come back and update this list as we think of other recurring complaints we've seen. Thanks so much for everyone's truly overwhelming response!

The ratio of internal energy density to magnetic field energy density

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

We've released Gaim 2.0.0beta1. If you decide to try it out, please back up everything in your .gaim directory. We're looking for lots of feedback on this release--especially what you love about it and what you hate about it. Again, this is a beta release and should not be used by those with a heart condition, if you are pregnant, or if you are under the age of 8. Side-effects include awesomeness, dumbfoundedness, dry mouth and lava. Consult your doctor to find out if Gaim 2.0.0beta1 is right for you.

Did I say "end of this month"?

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Hey there! So, a whole ton of you have answered my call to get on my case to finish 2.0.0, and I haven't been able to respond to each of you individually, so I figured a news post would do the trick. We're really close, now, to releasing our first beta. Check back next next Friday, December 16th. It really should be out by then. In the interim, here's a sneak preview screenshot!

Tasmanian devils have 300 pounds per square inch of bite

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

The page has been quiet for a while, 'eh. I guess we have some catching up to do:

Gaim development

A lot of you have noticed that while we typically release every three weeks, we haven't had a release in a while. We've shifted all our efforts to finishing Gaim 2.0.0. Gaim 2.0.0 has a ton of great features, fixes every problem you've ever had with Gaim, makes drastic changes to huge parts of Gaim---especially status, includes three new protocols, and does a bunch of other amazing stuff. We're looking to feature freeze at the end of this month and release a month or so later, so be sure to get on our cases and make sure we get it finished. Also, if you choose to give it a sneak peek in CVS, we ask that you please don't contact us about it. We already know a ton of things that are broken and incomplete that we'll get fixed before release. After our freeze, we'll make some pre-release builds for everyone to offer helpful feedback and bug reports on a product a bit closer to being finished than now. Unless you're interested in helping out with development, you should probably wait until then, as CVS can often break things badly for you.

Summer of Code

Meanwhile, Google's Summer of Code has drawn to a conclusion and we are very happy with what our students accomplished. Support for Apple's Bonjour protocol, UPnP NAT traversal, AIM and ICQ file transfer proxying, and support for the SIP/SIMPLE protocol are a few of the additions. See the news post at the top of our Summer of Code page for a detailed list.

Working at Google

I (Sean) have been hired by Google, moved to Seattle, and have been working on the Google Talk team for about a month and a half. The goal of Google Talk is to make real-time communication as open as possible, and in that regard, I've been working to offer all of Google Talk's features into other clients. Currently, I'm working on making it as easy as possible for other clients to use Google Talk's voice features. You can expect Gaim and other clients to be interoperable with Google Talk's voice features in the near future.

Gaim-vv

On a related note, the gaim-vv project—which aimed to offer a framework for voice and video support in Gaim—is being merged back into Gaim proper for hopeful incorporation into Gaim 2.0.0. This will be used to support Google Talk's voice as well as MSN and Yahoo! webcams.

Book

As I'll soon be getting my first royalty check, I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who bought my book and those who wrote me with such great compliments. Everyone seems to really enjoy the book, so be sure to pick up a copy if you haven't already. Mark Doliner contributed to this report.

Gaim 1.5.0 - who needs micro versions‽

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Good morning class. Today I'd like all of you to download our newest release of Gaim. It features some major security fixes and some minor bug fixes and feature whatchamadingers. So download, install, attempt to climb a 5.12c, and have a marvelous day!

Dead Trees and Ink

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I (Sean) am quite pleased to announce the publication of my book, Open Source Messaging Application Development: Building and Extending Gaim. This book, written by myself, edited by fellow Gaim developer Nathan Walp, and published by Apress, serves as a how-to guide for getting started in open source and free software. By using actual Gaim source code and plug-ins as a common example throughout, it familiarizes the reader with the most common open-source tools and techniques, such as creating GUIs with GTK+, connecting to the Internet with sockets, and much more. Throughout, I share my own insight from my five years working on the project. After reading this book, you should be able to create your own multi-platform, networked, desktop applications just like Gaim. I've put up a page that goes a bit more into depth about the book, and you can preview Chapter 3 at the publishers' website. This chapter, Development Tools, discusses some of the tools most commonly used in developing open-source software: Emacs, vim, gcc, Autotools, cvs, patch, Sourceforge.net, and others are discussed. Whether you're interested in learning more about how Gaim works to contribute the project, or you want to understand more about open-source tools and techniques with a mind to create your own applications, consider picking up a copy!

Gaim 1.4.0, around the curb from Wellspring Grocery

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

We've just released Gaim 1.4.0. Mostly bug fixes again. Have a blissful weekend, and may your subsequent Monday be neither manic nor volcanic.

Summer of Code Blogs

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

The students working on Gaim this summer as part of Google's Summer of Code project are journaling their work on the Gaim webpage. I've updated our main Summer of Code page to point to each student's blog. I've also aggregated all their blogs to a single page which much help from Steven Garrity. All these pages are RSS-enabled.