On 12 Jul 2010, at 13:50, Ethan Grammatikidis wrote:
On 12 Jul 2010, at 03:33, Joseph Xu wrote:
Hi:
I switched my main computer to Windows XP a while ago to play some
games, and was frustrated with the lack of simple usable IRC
clients (among other applications). So I decided to write my own.
Since I didn't want to mess with Visual Studio and complicated GUI
toolkits, I decided to write it in python using the standard
Tkinter library. The result is merp: a simple, cross-platform,
graphical, options-dialogs-toolbars-icons-click-okay-to-continue-
free irc client. The source is just under 700 lines and poorly
written, as it was only meant to be a prototype. I was hoping to
get some feedback on the interface design, so if anyone has a few
moments to spare, your testing experience would be much appreciated.
You can download the current source at
http://bitbucket.org/jzxu/merp/downloads
You'll need python 2.6 to run it. It should work in both windows
and linux, and probably anything else that runs python. Please look
at the readme.txt file, as otherwise merp might be a little
confusing to use at first.
It works on OS X too, except middle and right buttons are swapped.
I'm not asking for it to be fixed, just surprised Tk doesn't make it
consistent across platforms. Scrollbar down arrow is also hidden by
the window resize handle. *shrug*
I may keep using it, I IRC from an old laptop now & Colloquy's a bit
too memory-hungry, surprisingly. Also, search actually works in
merp.. :D I'll miss Colloquy's logging and automatic nickserv
management, but I should really be using a bouncer anyway.
I'm not sure what I think of the interface yet. Oh; one possible bug
I keep forgetting: when I tried to connect to freenode the cursor
wouldn't go to the bottom line. I have no idea if my join request
was sent and freenode ignored it or if it wasn't sent. Speaking of
freenode, how do you respond to a version request? I think freenode
ignores everything until you respond. Another thing which could be
worked around by using a bouncer. hmm.
Another bug: it needs to word wrap. (i.e. not break words at the ends
of lines.)
I'm thinking of making something in awk to handle nickserv etc, maybe
version requests too. Still thinking it over.
