|
Objirc Chat Documentation If you are reading this from the Objirc Chat application, refer http://objexcel.com/ for the latest updates. Help Contents Because Objirc Chat is written in Java, it requires a Java 1.1 or later Virtual Machine (VM). The Microsoft VM is the preferred VM since most testing was done with this VM, and it is noticeably faster than the Sun VM. You will have this VM if you have Internet Explorer 4.01. If you are using the Sun VM, please check you have the latest version (1.1.7 at the time of writing this). Objirc Chat is developed and tested on Windows NT. People are using it on OS/2, MacOS (you'll need the very latest VM from apple) and Unix platforms including Linux. After Using the Windows
Installer For those who are interested, here is how the launcher works. First, it attempts to start the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine. If you have not installed this VM it attempts to start the Sun Java Virtual Machine. The launcher application attempts to add the swingall.jar library to the classpath, searching in the Objirc Chat install directory and the %SUN_VM_HOME%\lib directory. Starting Objirc Chat from
the Command Line Special Objirc Chat Commands Objirc Chat supports all IRC commands
e.g: Objirc Chat also supports non-IRC
commands: Aliases One way to create aliases is with
/addalias: For example, "/addalias jnew /join #ircnewbies" would join the ircnewbies room when you typed /jnew. You can have parameters in your
aliases. A parameter starts with a a dollar sign ($) (two if you
want to be prompted for any missing values) followed by a number or
range. When you invoke the alias, the parameters are replaced with
what you type. E.g. If you added this
alias: Some parameter names are special. $$1="me" will automatically be replaced with your current nickname. $$5="target" will be replaced with whoever the alias was 'aimed' at. If you type it in a room window it will be replaced with the room name. If you type it in a private chat window, it will be replaced with the name of the person you are talking to. For example, set up an alias "/addalias w Welcome to $$1="target". $$2="me" is your host.". Then type "/w" in the #ircnewbies room. The alias will expand to "Welcome to #ircnewbies. Fred is your host." To remove an alias, type "/remalias jnew". To see what aliases you have loaded use "/listaliases". Another way to enter aliases is with with Favorites | Add commands to favorites. Make sure you select the "Load the commands as an alias" option. This option makes Objirc Chat load the commands as an alias when the menu item is selected later (rather than sending the command to the server). AddIns Objirc Chat currently supports AddIns written in Java and Python. Have at look at test.py in the Objirc Chat install directory and the class documentation in the Doc folder to get you started. Objirc Chat provides commands to help you work with AddIns. First, /Load loads the AddIn. E.g. "Load J jpython.jar" will load the Java libraries need to run a Python script. The 'J' is the type of AddIn you are loaded (in this case Java). To load the test.py Python script, type "/LOAD PY test.py" This parses and compiles the script but does not run it. To run a Java AddIn (after you have /Load'ed it) type /RUN J classname. To run test Python class in the test.py script, type "/RUN PY test". For this to work you must have loaded jpython.jar and test.py first. As an incentive for you to try your hand at creating AddIns, we're giving away registration codes in exchange for your scripts. Mail us with your gems and we may publish them on our website. IRC|Join
Server... Select OK and Objirc Chat logs you onto that server. To enter a new network, click the New button and type the network name in the combo box and enter a server and port (usually 6667), and press OK. Objirc Chat adds those details to its standard list and connects to the new server. To delete a network, select a network name and press delete. Tip: When choosing a server, opt for one that is close to you. Take note of the lag-o-meter readings to rate each server's performance. The lower the lag, the better the response. Each server is part of a larger IRC network (e.g. Dalnet or Undernet). Each network has slightly different commands and ambience. IRC|Rejoin Last
Server IRC|Leave
Server IRC|Exit Objirc
Chat View|Rooms View|File
Transfers View|Options You can enter your nickname here, a short message that Objirc Chat will send to anyone who asks for it, defaults for whether to automatically accept chats and files from other IRC users. You may also enter the default directory for file downloads. If you change your nickname here while connected, Objirc Chat will change your name on your connected IRC server to keep the two in sync. You will also need to enter the full path to your browser here. Use Start Menu|Find|Find Files or Folders to locate your browser. View|Show
ToolTips View|Look and Feel
Options Command User|Chat User|Direct
Chat User|Get
Info User|Send
File User|Kick
Ban Room|Join Room Room|Part
Room Favorites Favorites/Startup
Users Commands Favorites/User Favorites/Room Favorites/Command Favorites|Add
... Favorites|Organize Your
Favorites Favorites|Items... Select a room icon to join a room. Select a computer icon to change your IRC server. Window|Close The shortcut to this menu item does not display properly but is ctrl+F4. Help|Contents Help|Register Objirc
Chat Help|Objexcel's Objirc
Chat Web Site Help|Dalnet and
Undernet Message
History Command
Prompt Message
History Command
Prompt Sends actions to the room (by prefixing action with /me). E.g. /me says hi to everyone! Press the up arrow to retrieve your command history. Comings and
Goings User
List Shows the name, operator status, time the nick joined the room, the number of times they have spoken in the room and when they last spoke. Sort each column by clicking on the column header. Double click on a user to chat with them, or right click on them to get a menu with other options. Message
History Command
Prompt Sends actions to the user (by prefixing the action with /me). Use the up arrow to access the command history. File
Table Sort each column by clicking on it. Get details of the row by clicking on it. The details display in the File Detail area. Begin a file download by selecting the Save File context menu item associated with a row. The default save location is the directory you installed Objirc Chat to. Begin a file download saving it to a different name by selecting the Save File As... context menu item associated with a row. Cancel a row by selecting the Remove context menu item associated with a row. Offer a file to a friend by selecting the Send File... context menu item associated with a row. Objirc Chat displays a file chooser. The user selects a file and presses the Send button. Objirc Chat offers the file to the friend using CTCP. File Detail
Area Rooms
Table Some servers ignore one or more of the filter fields: Dalnet uses the name field but ignores the minimum and maximum number. Undernet ignores the room name but takes note of the minimum and maximum. You can filter the loaded list by changing any of the filter fields (name, min or max). The list will change as you type. The table lists the room name, the number of people in the room and the room topic. Sort each column by clicking on it. Join a room by double clicking it or selecting the Join Room context menu item associated with a row. Objirc Chat will save the list you loaded and display it the next time you use Objirc Chat. Since rooms come and go over time, you may wish to reload the list to make it current. The IO Monitor widget shows messages being sent from Objirc Chat to the server (the right arrow) and messages received from the server (left arrow). If Objirc Chat is not connected to a server, it shows a red cross. The tooltip for this icon shows the last message sent or received. The Notify widget is highlighted when someone from your Favorites | Startup folder is found on IRC. The ToolTip will show which users are present or which users Objirc Chat is attempting to locate. Click on the icon to reset it to the disabled state. The Lag-o-meter icon shows how long it takes the server to reply to a query sent from Objirc Chat. The shorter the reply time, the better your connection. Under two seconds is adequate. Anything worse and you should try connecting to a different server. This banner is loaded from the Objexcel web site each time you run Objirc Chat using technology developed here at Objexcel. Contact us if you wish to license it for your own products. By supporting our sponsors you help fund Objirc Chat development. This banner is currently advertising books and games from Amazon.com, the world leader in on-line sales of books and CDs. The banner offers one click access from Objirc Chat to Amazon.com's most popular books and CDs of the week (so you can become a more informed and interesting IRC netizen!). When you buy from Amazon you benefit from their services like gift-wrapping, fast shipping and unbeatable prices. Objexcel receives a commission from sales through Objirc Chat and these sales help fund future Objirc Chat development. You benefit both ways! We choose the books advertised in the banner, if you wish to recommend a book, drop us a email. Release 4 beta 2 Release June
1999 Release 4 beta 1 Released
March 10 1999 Released: November 2 1998 Added a toolbar. Added a user menu. Added a room menu. Each item is linked to the "current user" or "current room" and enabled. Each item is enabled only when applicable. When disabled, the icons tell you why - e.g. not connected, no room selected, etc. When enabled, each item tells you what it does. Added the favorites menu giving instant access to your favorite rooms, friends and servers. Objirc Chat shows whether a user in the favorites menu currently on IRC or not. Added color text - no more ugly control characters. Added popup hints (tool tips) on pretty much every field, button, menu, table and label in the application. Hopefully, these will make Objirc Chat easier to use. You can turn them off from the View menu if you don't care for them. Replaced all icons with a set of much more attractive ones created by Dean S. Jones (Copyright (c) 1998). Improved the usability of the Login Dialog by adding a New button for you to update our server listings. Set up a list of 372 servers and 52 different networks in the favorites menu so you probably won't need to add a new server! Added a Startup folder in the Favorites menu. Objirc Chat will automatically join each room you add to this folder and begin monitoring for the presence of any users in the folder. Created a status bar. Put a notify widget on it to notify you when friends from the Favorites Startup folder come on line. Put a Lag-o-meter and IO Monitor widget on the status bar. These are basically eye-candy. Added a send button to the Chat windows and Room windows. They allow you to send your message as a normal message or as an action, you'll probably find you never use. Their real purpose it to disclose how to send a message (press enter), and how to send an action (type /me does some action). Also some people just like using a mouse! Improved the Rooms window so it no longer needs the filter button (filtering now works automatically as you type). Improved the Room windows so they remain open after you get kicked or banned and automatically attempt to re-enter the room if you type anything to it. Added a highlight to the tab of each window with unseen messages. Objirc Chat performance has been tweaked. We have a performance test where Objirc Chat connects to a dummy IRC server which sends a IRC conversation file. Objirc Chat handles this file in 25 seconds, mIRC - probably the most popular IRC client in the world - takes 23 seconds. We believe this is pretty good going since Objirc Chat is written in Java (considered slow by some) and mIRC is probably written in C++. If you find Objirc Chat is slower than you'd like, use the Microsoft VM - we found it a couple of times faster on our tests. Note too, there is a considerable difference between a VM that uses JIT code compilation and one that uses pure bytecode interpeting (such as older Windows VMs and some quite recent Unix VMs). Check your VM is using JIT code compilation. Changes too numerous to mention were made in the guts of the application including a couple of bug fixes and some IRC parsing for a few new commands. Improved this help file. Release 2.2 (bug fix + usability) Released: August 15 1998 Added a startup room option. Added links to the Dalnet and Undernet IRC network web sites for IRC help. Made some slight usability improvements (expect some major ones in the next release!) In other news: fixed a problem with filtering room names, made sorting case insensitive in the rooms and user lists, improved scrolling in the message history panels, got rid of a bug restricting CTCP commands to a single word. Release 2.1 (bug fixes only) Released: August 6 1998 Improved the file chooser used on Java VM's that don't support the Swing file chooser. Fixed a problem with message boxes 'hanging' the application. Removed an unnecessary warning when some versions of the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser where closed. Fixed a problem where the Filter button in the Rooms tab was not enabled when it should be. Worked around a couple of problems with the IRC|Join command when you were already connected. Release
2 Added a user info window. This window provides about as much information as we can get out of the IRC network. Added a help menu to call up this file. Added an field on the Options Dialog to enter your preferred browser. Added client side flood protection. On IRC a server can disconnect you if you send too many messages (basically the server allows you to send one message every two seconds). Objirc Chat now automatically prevents you reaching that limit. Note: some rooms have bots or operators who may still 'kick' you out if they think you are being too noisy. There is not much we can do about that though. Made menu commands and buttons disabled when they are not applicable. Added 'tool tips' to the buttons to tell you why they are disabled. Added an Exit command to the IRC menu. Made the room list load in a separate when reading it off disk. Before, loading the saved rooms froze Objirc Chat for a few seconds.. Designed a splash screen and options sidebar (using Adobe Photoshop 5). Added a Direct Chat and Send File context menu command to the speech bubble on the chat windows. Added some code to close IRC rooms when you re-connect to a server. Made the Rooms window Load button work with the Internet Relay Chat network (was working only with the Dalnet network). Made Objirc Chat show the Options Dialog the first time it is run so you can change your nickname before connecting. Made Objirc Chat show the Rooms Panel each time it loads. Hopefully this will make it easier to get started on IRC. Enabled Direct Chats (aka DCC chats) with CTCP. Huh? This means you can use commands like "/me says hi" which will show up on the other side as "Yournick says hi". Fixed a bug where the room tabs did not display when you joined a room. Added a registration dialog for you to enter the lock key emailed to you after you register Objirc Chat. Added an ad banner. We had to have some mechanism to encourage people to register Objirc Chat. Rather than crippling the application, we've added an ad banner which you can turn off after registering. Release
1 Ordering
Information For your convenience we have contracted another company, NorthStar Solutions, to process any orders you may wish to place with your Visa, MasterCard, or Discover card. Please be sure to mention you would like to order Product # 3231 when placing your order: INTERNET ORDERS PHONED ORDERS FAXED ORDERS MAILED ORDERS Disclaimers |
Objirc Chat is a trademark of Objexcel. All other products mentioned are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies. Questions or problems regarding this web site or Objirc Chat should be directed to support@objexcel.com. Copyright © 1998 Objexcel. All rights reserved. Last modified: Monday June 21, 1999. |