[9fans] Introducing bsflite, AIM for Plan9

[9fans] Introducing bsflite, AIM for Plan9

[Claudio Leite]

Hello!

 Yesterday there was a comment about Plan 9 lacking an IM client. This is no
longer true; for the past few weeks I've been working on porting my client,
bsflite, from UNIX to Plan 9. So far, thanks to APE this has not been much of
a problem.

 The client is very simple, with a line-based interface reminiscent to a
shell. It has proven to be quite stable, seeing as how I've used it
exclusively for the past year and a half, and have "converted" many of my
friends.

 The latest binary is here:

 http://mordor.tip9ug.jp/who/bsflite/bsflite-20050112.plan9.gz

 also get http://mordor.tip9ug.jp/who/bsflite/README

 To use, simply copy the binary to your path. There is no configuration
needed. In this latest version, I have told it to look for the optional
configuration/profile/buddy list in $home/lib/bsflite/ (is this a good
place?). The files are named "config," "profile" and "buddies," respectively.
Note again that these are optional - view the README for more information.

 Previously, the client was meant to be used under vt, but since that doesn't
support reverse linewrap, the output of the client wasn't as clean as it's
intended. However, I haven't figured out how to get the terminal dimensions
for a rio shell window, and thus it's hardcoded to 80x24. The best way to do
things right now is to run vt, use its resize 80x24 function and quit - the
terminal will remain at the right size, at which point you can run bsflite
without any problems.

 Many thanks to Nashi from tip9ug.jp for help and for providing an account,
and to Thomas Miller for the idea of porting to Plan 9.

--Claudio

-- 
Claudio Leite
- http://leitec.org/
- http://staticky.com/

Re: [9fans] Introducing bsflite, AIM for Plan9

[rog]

> However, I haven't figured out how to get the terminal dimensions
> for a rio shell window, and thus it's hardcoded to 80x24.

see /sys/src/cmd/mc.c for an example of a program that does this.

why do you need to know the terminal dimensions?

PS. where's the source?

Re: [9fans] Introducing bsflite, AIM for Plan9

[tom]

I've been using bsflite for a couple of weeks
and it seems to work without any problems. 
It's extremely helpful if one has family
members on AIM.  Thanks so much to Claudio!  

Tom

Re: [9fans] Introducing bsflite, AIM for Plan9

[Dave Lukes]

Hmmm ....

Well, that's one less reason not to use plan9!

DaveL.

Claudio Leite wrote:

>Hello!
>
> Yesterday there was a comment about Plan 9 lacking an IM client. This is no
>longer true; for the past few weeks I've been working on porting my client,
>bsflite, from UNIX to Plan 9. So far, thanks to APE this has not been much of
>a problem.
>
> The client is very simple, with a line-based interface reminiscent to a
>shell. It has proven to be quite stable, seeing as how I've used it
>exclusively for the past year and a half, and have "converted" many of my
>friends.
>
> The latest binary is here:
>
> http://mordor.tip9ug.jp/who/bsflite/bsflite-20050112.plan9.gz
>
> also get http://mordor.tip9ug.jp/who/bsflite/README
>
> To use, simply copy the binary to your path. There is no configuration
>needed. In this latest version, I have told it to look for the optional
>configuration/profile/buddy list in $home/lib/bsflite/ (is this a good
>place?). The files are named "config," "profile" and "buddies," respectively.
>Note again that these are optional - view the README for more information.
>
> Previously, the client was meant to be used under vt, but since that doesn't
>support reverse linewrap, the output of the client wasn't as clean as it's
>intended. However, I haven't figured out how to get the terminal dimensions
>for a rio shell window, and thus it's hardcoded to 80x24. The best way to do
>things right now is to run vt, use its resize 80x24 function and quit - the
>terminal will remain at the right size, at which point you can run bsflite
>without any problems.
>
> Many thanks to Nashi from tip9ug.jp for help and for providing an account,
>and to Thomas Miller for the idea of porting to Plan 9.
>
>--Claudio
>
>  
>

Re: [9fans] Introducing bsflite, AIM for Plan9

[Gorka Guardiola]

> Hmmm ....
> 
> Well, that's one less reason not to use plan9!
> 
> DaveL.
> 
> Claudio Leite wrote:
> 
>>Hello!
>>
>> Yesterday there was a comment about Plan 9 lacking an IM client. This is no
>>longer true; for the past few weeks I've been working on porting my client,
>>bsflite, from UNIX to Plan 9. So far, thanks to APE this has not been much of
>>a problem.

I wasn't joking, there is an msn client also for plan 9. I has been around here
for sometime... I don't know if there are any legal problems with it though,
so I won't say the author.

										G.

Re: [9fans] Introducing bsflite, AIM for Plan9

[Tiit Lankots]

> I wasn't joking, there is an msn client also for plan 9. I has been  
> around here
> for sometime... I don't know if there are any legal problems with it  
> though,
> so I won't say the author.

Reverse engineering a protocol is perfectly legal both in USA and in EU.  
										G.

Re: [9fans] Introducing bsflite, AIM for Plan9

[Fco. J. Ballesteros]

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Ok. I am; sorry, I was not reading this thread.

We have (Hmm, I think in the dump, actually) a msn client.
Also, we changed a bit faces to start the clients. Didn't I 
say this to the list?

I'm not sure if it's in sources, nor where it is. If anyone
wants to play with it, I'll package it and put a copy into sources.

hth

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From: "Tiit Lankots" <t.lankots@aprote.ee>
To: "Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs" <9fans@cse.psu.edu>
Subject: Re: [9fans] Introducing bsflite, AIM for Plan9
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 13:42:02 +0200
Message-ID: <opskjhgczi3anw4g@tiitl.aprote.com>

> I wasn't joking, there is an msn client also for plan 9. I has been  
> around here
> for sometime... I don't know if there are any legal problems with it  
> though,
> so I won't say the author.

Reverse engineering a protocol is perfectly legal both in USA and in EU.  
										G.

Re: [9fans] Introducing bsflite, AIM for Plan9

[Claudio Leite]

Hello again,

  I just compiled and posted a new version for plan9 that can be run 
from any terminal regardless of size. Turns out, after reading some 
source this wasn't as hard as I thought.

http://mordor.tip9ug.jp/who/bsflite/bsflite-20050113.plan9.gz
http://mordor.tip9ug.jp/who/bsflite/bsflite-20050113.tar.gz (source)

Also, an additional note: the CVS version of bsflite (which includes 
this) supports messaging ICQ users. Simply add their UIN's as you would 
any screen name in AIM. (note, you cannot log in with an UIN; you must 
still use your AIM username).

--Claudio

Re: [9fans] Introducing bsflite, AIM for Plan9

[Claudio Leite]

On Wed, Jan 12, 2005 at 03:09:23PM +0000, rog@vitanuova.com wrote:
> 
> why do you need to know the terminal dimensions?

I use a word-wrapping print routine to display incoming and outgoing messages
in a more legible manner, so I need to know how many columns the screen has in
order to space it out properly. Thanks for the tip.

> 
> PS. where's the source?
> 

The current version in CVS supports Plan 9 (the latest release, 0.72, does
not). Please see http://bsflite.sf.net/ for more information. Some of it is a
bit ugly.

-Claudio

-- 
Claudio Leite
- http://leitec.org/
- http://staticky.com/