Puppy Linux IRC Chat

Hello All,

I am running on Puppy Linux ( Version 4 Beta ).

Puppy Linux is a small Linux distribution that is designed
to load from a live CD completely into RAM - allowing the
CD to be removed after booting and the drive to be used
for another purpose. This is one of the design points.

Another design point is that we want Puppy to be user
friendly and, beyond that, friendly to *new* users. We hope to
assist people attempting to escape from large closed source
operating systems. This implies that everything built in to
Puppy should "just work", intuitively, smoothly, easily.

Barry Kauler, the originator and lead developer of Puppy,
is very taken with ayttm since it is a full featured chat client
that takes about half the space of Pidgin. He has decided
that ayttm is to be included as a built in application in the
next release of Puppy Linux, due out shortly. Users will only
need to select ayttm from the menu or click on an icon in
order to use it. Barry has asked that the users of the Puppy
chat rooms take the time to look at ayttm.

I am very new to all this. Although I was a programmer
years ago, I was away from computers for about 20 years.
I have been on the internet for about 14 months - with no
previous internet experience. I got Puppy Linux up and
running less than 6 months ago - no previous linux / unix
experience. I've been using chat rooms about two months -
again with no previous experience. I only use
irc.FreeNode.net <http://irc.freenode.net/> and I access almost exclusively
the Puppy
Linux chat rooms.

I need to give you this background so that you will know
that there is a very good chance that I will think the program
needs work when the truth is that the user's inexperience
is the real problem.

Puppy Linux has several registered chat rooms on
irc.FreeNode.net <http://irc.freenode.net/>:

#puppylinux      is the main help channel
##puppylinux   is for more experienced regulars

There is also #puppylinux-foundation which seems
not to be much used anymore.

In addition, I have found that, under Xchat if you type
/j #ayttm you will find yourself in a room chatting with
others who have also typed that. It is not a regular channel
and it does not show up in the list - but it enables chatting.
I believe this works under Gaim and Pidgin as well, and it
is possible under ayttm using a different method.

I have Xchat set up to auto log in to all 4 chat rooms.
( I've checked the reconnect at login box in ayttm but it
does not seem to work. )

To use Xchat I click on the desktop icon I have labeled Xchat.

Xchat proceeds to log on to irc.FreeNode.net <http://irc.freenode.net/> and
join the
four chat rooms. It opens a window in the position and size
it has retained. The window has 5 tabs - one labeled FreeNode
and one for each of the four rooms. Each of the chat room
tabs reveals a wide chat area and a narrow list of online
users on the right side. All of the chat rooms are active.

Total elapsed time is 12.68 sec.

To use ayttm I click on the icon I have labeled Ayttm? .

Ayttm proceeds to log on to irc.FreeNode.net <http://irc.freenode.net/> and
it starts
downloading the list of channels. ( Unfortunately, this server
has 5000 +/- 100 channels. ) Note: if I try to start ayttm
while Xchat is running I get an IRC Error box which says:
"Connection closed by irc.freenode.net." but ayttm continues
to try to download the channel list. ( I have Optimum Online
high speed cable modem internet access. )

Without waiting for the download to complete, I immediately
start joining chat rooms.

I go to the ayttm window, click "chat" to pull down the menu,
and select "New group chat". That opens ayttm's "Join a Chat
Room" window. I move to that window and click on the down
arrow on the "Chat Room Name" entry field and select the
chat I want to join. Next I move to the "Local account" field.
It is blank, but if I click on it it shows "[IRC] GeoW". Then I
need to click on it again to select that entry - even though
that is my only account. Next I click the "Join" button and
ayttm joins me into that chat room.

This needs to be done for each chat you want to join.
I can do it in about 10 sec. each.

When I have joined all 4 chat rooms, I will have a window
with 5 tabs - one ChanServ and the 4 chats.

Now I reposition and resize the window because ayttm has
not retained my settings. I make the window full screen
width but pulled up at the bottom to expose a row of icons.

Then I go into each chat room and move the divider between
the chat area and the list of online users from the center of
the window to about an inch from the right edge.

I got all this done for 1 chat in about 34 sec.
For all 4 chats it took me 1:53.92.

Notes, Suggestions, and Opinions

If it's possible, I think you should put off downloading the
channel list until the user indicates a desire to see it. ( I
almost never want to see this list of 5000 chat rooms. )

I would like the "Reconnect at login" check box to work.

I would like the position and size of the chat window and the
position of the line dividing the chat area from the online
user list to be retained.

I think if these suggestions were implemented, ayttm would
probably beat Xchat's time - although I do not think the
speed is an issue as much as the high level of user interaction
needed for each use. If we could get all the chats up and
positioned correctly with one click on the icon I do not think
the time would matter.

There is one small problem that I think is a bug. If you have
been away from the computer for a while, you may want to
scroll back and read forward to get current. Unfortunately,
every time a new message is posted, ayttm moves to the
new entry. If the channel is currently very active, this makes
it difficult to read the older entries. ( Xchat leaves the screen
position alone and adds the new messages to the bottom
of the list. )

There are also several commands in common use which do
not seem to work in ayttm:

/j is used to temporarily join a channel
/nick is used to change your screen name ( I often suggest
    this to users who come in with names like pupuser12365c7 )
/ghost is used to kill a ghost version of yourself
/msg may be needed to confirm your identity with NickServ

There may be other commands that I haven't used.

I personally would like a single click to activate a link rather
than the double click ayttm currently uses, and I would like
the option of getting the timestamps in 12 hr mode rather
than 24 hr mode.

Having said all this, let me add that I love ayttm. If you fix the
"Reconnect at login" checkbox, I will be able to start using it
regularly. If you also fix the scrollback reading problem I'll be
even happier. The rest, I can live with.

When I learned programming, about 40 years ago, it was
important to write small, fast, and dependable code. I had
thought those days were gone forever and I would be stuck
in a world of huge, inefficient programs written by
non-programmers that moved me farther and farther from
what was happening on my computer.

Then I discovered Puppy Linux and a group of people who
seemed to share my orientation. Now Barry has discovered
ayttm and it seems to fit right in. Ayttm will be another
welcome feather in Puppy's cap. I am amazed at the level
of functionality you have put into a small package. Please
keep up the good work.

I hope you find something of use in all this,

George

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