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Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

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Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#231

Post by dheera »

jdlyga wrote: post #49

Does nobody remember Pidgin? It was one of the first things a lot of people installed on their machines 15 years ago along with Firefox. We used it as an alternative client to AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. It used to be called GAIM.

Oh damn, Pidgin. I LOVED that app.

15 years ago I had ONE messaging app that logged me into MSN, ICQ, QQ, Zephyr, Gtalk, Yahoo, AIM, Facebook, and Renren.

On that one messaging app I had either written or downloaded plugins for:

* End-to-end encryption (receiver needed the plugin as well)

* Automatic two-way human language translation via online translation APIs so I could have a conversation with someone who didn't share a common language with me

* Automatic two-way conversion between simplified and traditional Chinese. (I can read both, but traditional is faster for me, so I had it auto-translate all simplified to traditional for me, as well as auto-translate all of my outgoing traditional to simplified on a per-user basis for the receiver's convenience.)

* Ability to create conversation groups across networks, with my account serving as a gateway.

* Automatic rendering of in-line LaTeX math equations.

* Controlling of IOT devices, and allowing access to my dorm room for guests by having them send me an instant message with a certain secret word.

* Cloud-based logs of all of my messages.

* Online gateway that allowed me to access all my message logs from anywhere on any device and any OS with a web browser.

I feel like we've gone backwards. I now have a dozen different closed-protocol, walled-garden messaging apps, some of them even actively try to PUNISH you for trying to decompile and edit them, translation is not automatic, cloud logs only exist on Facebook messenger, E2E encryption is skeptically touted and paraded as some new thing even though I personally had real open-source E2E encryption 15 years ago on ALL my messengers, and everyone is siloed into their own apps and there is no way to send messages across networks.

Sigh. Tech in 2021 sucks. I honestly felt my messaging was way more advanced 15 years ago.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#232

Post by Blikkentrekker »

aidenn0 wrote: post #204
Blikkentrekker wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nigh all of the protocols have incomplete support. I purely use it as a chat client and avoid most of the more complicated features, since I don't use them.

Yeah, that's why I asked, because if you use only 1 chat protocol, a dedicated client is almost always better (now that ICQ and AIM are dead). Pidgin really shines if you need to aggregate multiple protocols in a single client.

Indeed, and that is why I use it.

I certainly have no wish to have five different clients open, many of which not even scriptable when I can have all my contacts in one list.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#233

Post by Liskni_si »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #102
Blikkentrekker wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does not everyone still use it? I and most of my friends do. They are also responsible for my favorite bug report ever: https://bugs.gentoo.org/35890

I finally stopped using it when Google Chat[0] went away. [0] Not that Google Chat, the other one.

Still works well through https://github.com/EionRobb/purple-hangouts. (I'm only using that through bitlbee-purple, not via Pidgin, but that should be largely irrelevant.)

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#234

Post by kop316 »

arbitrage wrote: post #200
kop316 wrote: post #115

While I really like Pidgin, I really wish their developer reference for plugins were a bit easier to work with/understand. The only thing I find is here: https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/CHowTo (Their new website https://pidgin.im/development/ has nothing on making plugins) But it does not explain things like How to create new chats/IMs, how to create new buddies, what the Buddy List is (Which I found out, the buddy…

I tried to contribute code to the pidgin project a long time ago. I was attempting to flesh out the plugin architecture and functionality (yes, including documentation! i was a big nerd back then. still am, tbh) The guy who ran the project back then was an arrogant sanctimonious asshole. Everything was a goddamn power play with him. I left that project quickly for greener OSS pastures.

That's really sad to hear. I have been working mainly with the Chatty devs, and they have been great to work with so far.

Maybe the v3 API is better, but tbh the v2 API feels very much like it was designed for the AIM/MSN days. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just makes the plugin architecture feel very inflexible.

But the Chatty folks seem to be moving away from libpurple (for much the same reasons), so I don't know how much more I will work with it.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#235

Post by meow112012 »

jdlyga wrote: post #49

Does nobody remember Pidgin? It was one of the first things a lot of people installed on their machines 15 years ago along with Firefox. We used it as an alternative client to AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. It used to be called GAIM.

yes I do, a lot. Pidgin is awesome. I used it with Yahoo, irc chat. Unfortunately my life is all about slack and telegram today :(

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#236

Post by kop316 »

Blikkentrekker wrote: post #175
unicornporn wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there E2EE support for Matrix? Edit: Nope. https://github.com/matrix-org/purple-matrix/issues/18

Nigh all of the protocols have incomplete support. I purely use it as a chat client and avoid most of the more complicated features, since I don't use them.

That's been my experience with developing with libpurple unfortunately. The APIs are very inflexible for advanced chat features, and theres little documentation for making your own plugin.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#237

Post by psychoslave »

CodeGlitch wrote: post #189
finiteseries wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mate, the general population increasingly don’t even use desktops or laptops for personal usage anymore let alone a desktop OS specific IM client from the early 2000s.

I would suggest they never knew how to use computers. Computers are general purpose devices, which is lost on the general population who only ever need to check emails and post on social media. Smart phones fit this perfectly. Let's leave the general computing devices for people who actually need that power, just like the early days.

Oh yes, let’s leave power to those who know the best, they will make what is right for everybody. History heavily confirm this pattern.

Re: Pidgin – A Universal Chat Client

#239

Post by meow112012 »

ehsankia wrote: post #64
jdlyga wrote: post #49

Does nobody remember Pidgin? It was one of the first things a lot of people installed on their machines 15 years ago along with Firefox. We used it as an alternative client to AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. It used to be called GAIM.

I still have my .purple backup. It even had a Steam plugin I recall which was great since Steam itself didn't have chat logs.

When they renamed the app, I pruned my chat logs by some mistake renaming the logging folders. I lost my most important logs then :(
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