On 25/06/14 11:58, Simon Steinbeiß wrote:
Hey everyone,

as our next release is not LTS we're reviewing some of our default app choices 
and considering to move away from XChat, as it hasn't been maintained as 
actively lately as e.g. its fork hexchat. [1]

We've discussed this in today's community meeting and the outcome of this first 
review was a bit mixed. While neither of the present team members really use/d 
pidgin for IRC, it could still be enough as an easy way for users to get on IRC 
to get support. Additionally there's the webchat option on xubuntu.org.

So this is what it comes down to (at least the way I see it):
1) Should we replace XChat as our default IRC client?
2) Is the IM app we already ship (pidgin) and the webchat option enough to 
replace XChat?
3) Should we use hexchat over 1) or 2)?

I personally wouldn't mind replacing XChat and trying something new, mostly 
because it doesn't seem maintained. I still have to take both pidgin and 
hexchat for a spin though, because I haven't used the latter at all and the 
other I haven't used for IRC.

I propose that (at least) members of the Xubuntu team try these apps for real 
too and we have another – more informed and experience-based – discussion at 
the next team meeting.

Cheers
Simon

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu/Roadmap/Specifications/Utopic/Hexchat

Just a reply to this following the meeting today in which I got tasked to do something - I fully blame Simon and Lyz for that :p

So - hexchat.

Currently I see 2 issues with it.

1 - Alt + A - used to mark oneself as away in both Xchat and Hexhat. It works in Xchat. There is a bug reported at github for hexchat, https://github.com/hexchat/hexchat/issues/1008

Currently the only response to that bug from a dev is "It works sometimes on some platforms, I'm not entirely sure what happened but that is a bug yes."

2 - Ctrl +F - used in both to search in a channel as expected. In hexchat this results in the app window resizing to accomodate the search 'box'. I have had to rewwork the way I had devilspie laying out apps for me as hexchat went oversized in the window. https://github.com/hexchat/hexchat/issues/1030

Currently the only response to that bug from a dev is "I'd like to make it a little more compact, I don't know if I can make it clip instead of resize though."

I've not seen any other issues while using it.

My concern is that we are looking to swap one IRC client, which while dev less at least works, for one where there is a dev, but little appears to get done with regard to bugs. Frying pan to fire springs to mind.

I'm -1 to removing xchat for hexchat given that.


--
Ubuntu Forum Council Member
Xubuntu QA Lead


--
xubuntu-devel mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel

Reply via email to