Re: [9fans] irc tools

["Russ Cox" <rsc@plan9.bell-labs.com>]

I'm curious what you mean about the difference between
acme and sam as a model for a chat client.  The only difference
between acme and sam windows (for the purposes of this discussion)
is that sam windows are click-to-type and acme windows aren't.
Are you claiming that moving the mouse but not clicking is
somehow worse than moving the mouse and clicking?

I'm particularly confused by your claim that "dumb terminal mode"
would mix server output and user input mid-typing, which simply
isn't true at all in Plan 9.  (It's true in Unix.)  Run:

	{sleep 5; echo -----------} &

and then type something at the next prompt but don't hit enter.

	g% {sleep 5; echo -----------} &
	g% something

becomes

	g% {sleep 5; echo -----------} &
	g% -----------
	something

the lines stay unmixed.  Sadly, the prompt doesn't move,
but you could get around that by not having a prompt, or by
telling win/rio how big the prompt is.

If I were going to build a real interactive IRC (or IM, ...) client
for Plan 9, I'd have two acme windows for each open channel,
one displaying chatter and the other taking your input a la
(probably via) win.  Almost all the pieces are there now, in fact.
I'm not sure about one-on-one chats -- I can see benefits to having
them in a single window and benefits to having them split across
two windows.

What did you have in mind in as the "sam-style" interface?

Russ