What: Tkabber Where: http://tkabber.jabber.ru/en/ Description: A very complete implementation of Jabber. According to http://www.jabber.org/user/clientlist.php?Platform=Linux it is the most complete version of Jabber for Linux. Should run under other platforms too (it's pure Tcl/Tk). Updated: 03/2004 Contact: (Alexey Shchepin) Source: http://www.jabberstudio.org/projects/tkabber/releases/ ---- [kroc] 26/03/2004 - Tkabber [starkit] can be downloaded from the [sdarchive] or tkabber website now. This customized version is based on 0.9.7 with new features ([gtklook.tcl], some bugs removed by me, [SRIV] and [PT], custom sounds and icons to match wiki chat needs, etc..). It also can source snack and/or tls starkits from auto_path, launch dir or ~/.tkabber if available. It can use platform dependent stakit packages (named tls-[string tolower [string range $::tcl_platform(os) 0 2]].kit) or cross platform starkit packages (named tls.kit). See http://mini.net/sdarchive to get wanted packages. ---- [LV] 2004-Mar-25 when I try the version of tkabber I got from [sdarchive], I got the error: couldn't read file "/volws/lwv26/ldatae/bin/snack.kit/main.tcl": no such file or directory while executing "source /volws/lwv26/ldatae/bin/snack.kit/main.tcl" ("uplevel" body line 1) invoked from within "uplevel [list source [file join $self main.tcl]]" I have a snack.kit, which is in the same directory as tkabber.kit. More, on 2004-Mar-27. Okay, I downloaded the latest starkit from the developer web site. I moved snack.kit from my directory. Now I get a GUI. However, when I use the login info mentioned below, I get no kind of indication of a chat window being created . Either I haven't figured out how the application works - which is certainly possible - or it isn't working. [kroc] 29 Mar 04 : Once you're logged, right click on the Tcl chat room group on the top of the roster, then ask to join. ---- [PT] 19-Mar-2004: I have found the kroc.tk versions of tkabber to be very useful here. I live behind an extremely restrictive web proxy and firewall - keepalives not permitted for port 80 and SSL only permitted on port 443. However (with a minor bug fix) we can get Jabber working through this proxy. The key is that there is a public jabber server listening on the SSL port at jabber80.com. Tkabber permits you to setup your jabber details, setup the web proxy (including any proxy authentication that may be needed) and setup to use tls. You require either the starpack (which includes tls) or to have tls.kit available. If tls is loadable then you get a SSL tab on the login dialog. Once your jabber connection is up, you can then join the tcl chat on conference.sr-tech.com. ---- [LES] on Mar 11, 2004: This application crashes in my Windows 98 SE. "Wish 84 has executed an illegal operation and will be shut down". The starkit runs, but everything is in European Portuguese. I am in Brazil. I hate it when software makes assumptions. I can't find any obvious way to view the menus in English. [kroc] Set ::env(LC_MESSAGES) to en (or the i18n you want): it uses msgcat. Some errors must be wrapped in [catch]. The "Report a bug" link in the site is disabled. ---- [LES] on Mar 12, 2004: is this program funny or what? I just rebooted and found that it had weaseled its way into my startup folder, although I never told it to. It also made some change to my system that I cannot determine. Windows "updated" something during the boot. I still haven't been able to find the source of this application anywhere, so I recommend all caution with this one. What a piece of obtrusive code. [SS]: Your experience seems to suggest all cautions with the Windows operating system. Tkabber is just a normal Tcl application that works quite well, if the operating system does strange updates or allows a random application to perform sensible things, it's another problem IMHO. [LES]: no other Tcl/Tk application ever "updated" anything in my system during startup. Not even [ActiveTcl], a much bulkier installation that even adds a couple of bits to the Registry. My idea of "a normal Tcl application" is the one that comes in a tarballed source that I can inspect and run with my current Tcl installation, and/or optional .exe's tfor people who don't have Tcl. You just used my complaint as an excuse to trash Windows. [SS]: Well from your first message I read "Windows updated something during the boot". Also tkabber is released in form of tarballed source. That's the distribution site http://www.jabberstudio.org/projects/tkabber/releases/. My intention was not to use your complaint to trash Windows, even if indirectly I charged it with responsibility for the problems you experienced. ---- [LV] This application starts just fine for me on an locale C SPARC Solaris 8 machine. However, I've no idea what kind of server it is looking for - does anyone have, for example, the connection details to a Tcl related chat area? [kroc] Jabber is peer to peer chating (like [ICQ]). You can use (or create) an account using jabber.org (see http://www.jabber.org/user/publicservers.php for details). I create a test account for anybody wanting to try jabber : tcler@jabber.org : login: tcler - password: tkabber - server: jabber.org [jcw] - Wow! Why don't we all just use this for Tcl chats? Starkit works out of the box for me. Looks like it has all the bells and whistles. No idea about http gateway. [SRIV] To connect to the tcl's irc chat via jabber, login to a server, like jabber.org, then click on the "Join Group" button on the toolbar. Fill out the settings, use your normal chat nickname for Nick:, unless your logged in elsewhere as well, the Group: is tcl and the Server: is conference.sr-tech.com . Theres no password. I've made modifications to tkabber to make the tcl chat conference work very smooth and fix the file transfer port (8077) so it can be used behind a filewall that has a hole punched through. Link to my latest tkabber.kit [http://pb.sr4.org:81/tclkits/tkabber-0.9.6beta.kit]. Also, this kit contains the tls extension for Windows & linux, so you can chat encrypted. '''2004-03-18''' [SRIV] All my tweaks have been inplemented in [kroc]'s version above, so his release will be the prefered source from here forward. '''2004-03-19''' [SRIV] '''Update!''' I changed the conference name above to tcl@conference.sr-tech.com (took off the #). This was to enable compatibilty with a web chat interface to my jabber server. Try the web interface by going to [http://sr-tech.com] and play around. JCW, tell me what you think. It was tricky to set up the jwchat, but, I'll be glad to supply you with my configs if you want to try it on your server. [jcw] - Neat. It might be an idea to think about ''adaptive functionality'': a convention, whereby a starkit which works just fine by itself would discover other packages that enable more functions (both Snack and TLS would be an example here. If this were done in a generic manner, such adaptive apps could have a user interface to see what sort of things it can deal with, and perhaps even grab them. In a way this is just another packager/downloader, but the key would be that the process is ''driven from usage'' (which is VERY different from todays delayed gratification schemes!). It means you can get an adaptive app and make it work for you right away, but if you want more features you can invest some more time to get them. Another related idea: a server which serves packages to any adaptive app, located either on the same machine or perhaps on the same LAN. So apps could go and check what packages there are on such a "package server" and grab things on package require (every time). Last step: make the package server be a caching server for a bunch of repositories on the internet, and you have a scalable distribution mechanism: deploy-on-demand? ''Anyway... I'm straying a bit from the topic of this page.'' [SRIV] You may be straying from the topic of this page, which we can always move, but, this is a good example of an app that can work without the optional packages if they aren't available. [AJB] wrote a few line "which" script to find files in your exe path, which I would prefer to use. So, any starkit in your exe path would be available for loading. This makes for simple file placement for beginners on windows or linux, esp if for example, exec'ing the snack.kit would automagically copy itself into the exe path for you. [AJB] I posted the [which] script, which has worked for me in a similar situation. ---- [PT] The current version can look a bit like this under Windows at the moment. [http://tclsoap.sourceforge.net/tkabber097-winxp.png] [Kroc] The current [starkit] version looks a like this under Linux at the moment. [http://www.kroc.tk/tclkit/Tkabber097starkit.png] ---- '''Mar 26, 2004''': What is available at [sdarchive] is actually version 0.96, 0.97 doesn't work for me (can't read "::default_font": no such variable while executing "custom::defvar options(font) etc...) and there is no 0.97 in the source URL given above. Where can I get the source to 0.97? [PT] - 0.9.7 is the current CVS version and hasn't actually been released yet. However, as we ([PT] and [Kroc]) want to be able to sumbit patches back to the main tkabber we're now operating with the CVS version. This is all a work-in-progress at the moment so some bugs are likely. We are working on it :) ---- ''See also'' [Coccinella] and [Jabber] ---- [Category Application] | [Category Internet]