Chax
Warp
GlyphaChax Leopard Alpha 1
It seems that a lot of people can’t wait to get some of the more basic features back from Chax, so I’m posting a very, very early build of Chax that will work on 10.5. There is no installer yet, the download simply contains a SIMBL bundle that should be put in ~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins. PlugSuit or SIMBL is required to load Chax into iChat 4.As it stands, the following features have been reimplemented:
- Auto-resizing contact list
- Customizable contact list fonts (except for group headers, which probably won’t be coming back)
- Growl notifications
- Log viewer (about 90% functional)
- Possibly fixed the ICQ/HTML bug (unconfirmed)
Please, please, please don’t take this to mean that I can reimplement every little feature that is missing from Chax in 10.4 immediately. Features will be added as I’m able to do so and I’ll be posting newer builds as I go.This build is not meant to be posted on MacUpdate, VersionTracker, or other software update sites.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:54 am
Wow, thats great! Thanks
October 31st, 2007 at 2:04 am
settings do not save at all. None of them do.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:22 am
Thanks for posting the alpha. One feature iChat 4 is still missing is the ability to define per-user notifications (like Adium allows). I’d really like to define a specific sound/whatever if a specific person comes online.
Keep up the great work!
October 31st, 2007 at 3:51 am
Paul: in 10.4′s iChat you can do this, so I’d be surprised if they’ve taken it out of 10.5. It’s just not immediately obvious where to find the settings. If you select a buddy in the buddy list then bring up the info window (command-I), choose ‘Actions’ from the pop-up menu at the top of the window and there are the buddy-specific notification settings.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:11 am
i love you man!
October 31st, 2007 at 5:31 am
love you too..
i can’t find the log-viewer.. is it yet included in this build?
October 31st, 2007 at 7:26 am
HTML-disabling doesn’t work for me here
I’m using the alpha with the latest SIMBL-Plugin on 10.5.0 on a Powerbook G4.
I know it’s too early to ask for localisations
But if you need help for german language, contact me!
October 31st, 2007 at 8:03 am
still full of html code, but thank your for your work once again =)
October 31st, 2007 at 8:14 am
Wow, that’s fast.
I made a fix for the ICQ HTML Bug, based on the Chax sources:
http://www.poetsch.org/weblog/373/fixing-ichat-for-icq
Kent: That version works, feel free to use it.
October 31st, 2007 at 12:03 pm
It works! You rock!
October 31st, 2007 at 12:20 pm
What am I doing wrong? The settings don’t stick for me as well
HELP!
October 31st, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Nice work! I realize that you’re not looking to (necessarily) re-implement all of the features of Chax in Leopard. The one I missed almost instantly was the “auto-approve incoming chats” option. So if you’re compiling requests, I submit that one.
Nice work!
October 31st, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Thanks for throwing this together so quickly. I was really missing my GROWL notifications – especially now that I have “spaces” and iChat is always way off in its own space. Now I can see who/what is talking to me before flipping over to there. Thank you thank you!
October 31st, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Very grateful to you for your quick work.
FWIW, the Growl notifications are working for me, but the “resize buddy list” function isn’t. This isn’t a complaint, because I know that you’ve only just started — think of it as a data point, FWIW.
Powerbook, G4/1.2
@Dave Hamilton: the “auto-approve” function is already available. In iChat prefs, go to “alerts”. For “text invitation”, check the “Run Applescript:” box and select the pre-installed “Auto Accept.applescript” script — and you should be golden!
October 31st, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Now if we can just get Auto Reconnect working life will be good again.
October 31st, 2007 at 3:15 pm
doesn’t work at all for me
anyone have any ideas… i really want to reduce the size of the fonts in my buddy list
October 31st, 2007 at 3:21 pm
They posted this anyhow, as a .dmg file that contains an installer, which doesn’t actually install.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20056
October 31st, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Since work for the Leopard Chax version is underway, I found that iChat 4 is a vast improvement over iChat 3, but the one feature keeping me from using the new iChat over Adium is the dockability/auto-hide feature found in Adium.
I feel like this is a great feature not found in iChat 4 that if implemented (thru Chax) would allow me to switch over to iChat 4 completely. Otherwise, the other additional enhancements Chax will eventually offer will be much appreciated.
Thanks and keep up the good work!
October 31st, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Hmm. Don’t seem to be getting any Growl notifications. Using SIMBL 0.8.2, Chax 2 alpha seems to be working and shows its options in iChat preferences. I enabled Growl notifications in Chax and have Growl 1.1.1 setup with all Chax notifications on in System preferences.
Am I missing something?
October 31st, 2007 at 6:33 pm
doesn’t work here.
i activated everything… installed simbl, put the .bundle file into the plugin folder, loaded successfully in ichat4…
chax is listed as app in growl and activated notificiations but no notifications so far. also can’t save settings in chax preferences as well.
???
October 31st, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Thanks for the info David, that feature has been there for years and I never managed to find it before you helped out!
October 31st, 2007 at 7:01 pm
I did a clean install of Leopard and also had difficulty getting the Growl notifications to work. Found out it there is no preference file generate to store the setting of Chax Alpha 1. I got it working by pulling the preference file (com.ksuther.chax.plist) for Chax from my Tiger backup.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:05 pm
architecturelab: would you mind to share that .plist file since the chax creator didn’t seem to check on that?
if you could upload that file somewhere and describe where to put it i’d apperciate a lot (not only me).
thanks
October 31st, 2007 at 7:17 pm
The problem where preferences won’t be saved can be solved by entering this command in the Terminal:
defaults write com.ksuther.chax GrowlEnabled -bool NO
This will create a preferences file for Chax that will allow future preferences to be saved. The source of the problem will be fixed in the next build I post.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Thanks a lot Kent
October 31st, 2007 at 7:32 pm
By the way, is this alpha supporting notifications when people log-in or leave? Seems not working yet.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Ok works now, all notifications.
looking forward to final release! thanks again
October 31st, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Dang growl only half way works anyone know what im doing wrong i cant get the sounds to work nor contacts that log on and off