Yet another beta that has little more than a bunch of fixes for tear-off tabs. I've also added an option for those of you who don't want to use tear-off tabs. Also fixed is the long delay that many people experienced when quitting iChat. All past activity data should migrate over without any problems, but old versions of Chax will be unable to read the store type.

Changes from 1.4.6 beta 2:

  • (Bug) Sheets now display properly after a tab is torn off
  • (Bug) Fixed more crashes related to tear-off tabs
  • (Bug) Fixed more minor cosmetic issues with disabling close buttons on tabs
  • (Bug) Quitting iChat should now be much faster
  • (New) Added an option to disable tear-off tabs
  • "Move to Window" and "Move to Tab" options removed in favor of tear-off tabs

28 comments:

Mike at 2006-09-22 20:56:20 -0400

I've been digging long and hard to find a way to stop ichat from logging me out when I do a Fast User Switch (FUS). After some digging in the strings of the ichat binary I found the pref "AwayOnFastUserSwitch". If it has any value then ichat doesn't log out on a FUS, though strangely it doesn't do what it says, it doesn't set your status to away. I'm not sure if your doing your work through pref changes but if you are I thought you might like to know about this one. There are three other interesting strings in the iChat binary but I couldn't figure out if they were prefs or something else, they are: setFastUserSwitchAway: changeFastUserSwitchPopup: fastUserSwitchPopup

Yura Zakalyuzhny at 2006-09-23 04:19:29 -0400

Quitting iChat drove me crazy because it took ages (well, up to 2-3 minutes on a PM G3/350, to be exact) until I cleared Activity window yesterday. I noticed before clearing that my Activity file was as large as 4 MB, so no surprise it was so painful. I believe it would be nice to have a preference for controlling Activity records accumulating behavior between iChat launches, say, checkbox named "Clear Activity before quitting iChat". Even now when (as 1.4.6b3 release note states) quitting is much faster, this option can be helpful.

Piotr Chyliński at 2006-09-23 08:15:32 -0400

Polish localization of Chax 1.4.6b3 can be downloaded from my page: http://polonizacje.apple.eu.org. Kent, can you contact me, please?

sjk at 2006-09-23 17:28:52 -0400

I've noticed activity log data only seems to be saved when iChat is quit; closing the Activity window isn't enough. Any chance it'll eventually be saved more frequently so they'll survive iChat crashes? Two other activity log suggestions: • Ability to manually delete selected entries • Preference to automatically delete entries older than a specified amount of time Thanks, Kent!

boult at 2006-09-24 18:40:27 -0400

I noticed that any url others pasted when im'ing me are not clickable if they leave out the prefix "http://" is that because of Chax?

Eric at 2006-09-25 21:39:54 -0400

Where's the best place to post feature requests? A buddy list auto-hide feature would be cool (ala the Auto Hide feature of the Dock)

Miss Helly at 2006-09-27 14:04:35 -0400

When I send files (mainly jpg, png, etc) they won’t go through. This happened with the earlier version as well.

Avi Flax at 2006-09-28 10:46:25 -0400

Hi, I have a feature request, I'm piggybacking on this post because the "contact" feature of your site is disabled. My suggestion is: have an option so you can indicate that iChat should automatically position itself on a secondary monitor. I use a laptop, 50% with an external monitor, 50% without. If I was using iChat without the external, then quit, it remembers that it was on that screen. Next time I launch it, it opens up on the laptop screen again, even if my external monitor is present. I want Chax to check, on launch, whether a secondary monitor is available, and, if I've chosen the option, to automatically move iChat to it. What do you think? Great software BTW!

Lee G. at 2006-09-28 13:40:30 -0400

"Always on top option for user lists, text chats, and audio or video chats". Can anyone tell me how to activate this feature? Thank You!

Mike at 2006-09-29 17:37:44 -0400

Any way to get idle time displayed in the buddy list?

lucio bragagnolo at 2006-09-30 12:01:02 -0400

Do I have permission to include Chax inside the complimentary CD-ROM given away with Macworld Italy magazine? Thanks a lot, best regards, lux

Jim Gleeson at 2006-10-01 17:09:00 -0400

Is there a way that you can create a feature that allows the people that you ignore in iChat to stay ignored? I would love to have this feature. Jim

Tom Walichiewicz at 2006-10-04 01:33:45 -0400

I've noticed that sometimes the tabs create a thick outline of themselves on the outmost side when they are not selected.

eliot at 2006-10-07 22:30:31 -0400

i know you're flooded with requests for new features, but this may be an easy one: in addition to showing when a user changes their away message, maybe we could have a prefix for when a user sends an AutoResponse message, similar to the official AIM counterpart. This may be as simple as just interpreting the information the server sends, or it may just be out of your control. either way, thanks for everything you've done and keep up the amazing work!

rado at 2006-10-08 04:16:36 -0400

excellent. now please add icq offline messages :)

Scott Goldman at 2006-10-09 13:53:28 -0400

I've noticed since upgrading to 10.4.8 (and using the latest version of Chax) that I can no longer see when my buddy is typing a message. In the past I was given a visual indicator that they were typing something; has Chax somehow eliminated this function? If not, am I missing something simple in iChat that would cause this behavior? Thanks for a wonderful addition to iChat - the features you provide are what Apple's developers SHOULD have included in the first place, so I'm very glad that you did.

Chris Wheeler at 2006-10-09 14:07:52 -0400

I am here to throw another feature request on the bonfire. I frequently use iChat to help colleagues in other countries. Since I can not learn all the languages fast enough.... I use the translate widget and copy paste into iChat. Wouldn't it be great to include the translate widget functionality into iChat ?!? Users could choose a language pull down and click translate to carry on iChats that would further World Peace as never before. Keep up the great work ! I luv Chax !

Scott at 2006-10-09 21:05:52 -0400

New mac user here. I just downloaded chax to help with some nagging problems I've had with iChat. Adium wasn't as clean as ichat, but ichat was as powerful as Adium. Chax is a great add on!

Chris at 2006-10-09 22:04:10 -0400

Chax 1.4.5 is the reason iChat dies on me with the 10.4.8 update

Louis at 2006-10-09 23:01:04 -0400

Hey just a suggestion for a future feature. Have the option to be able to set your current iTunes song's album cover as the buddy icon. Fantastic work so far on Chax!

Jason at 2006-10-11 11:49:10 -0400

After the 10.4.8 update I had to disable Chax, because I was having too many problems with iChat. If you'd like more information on this please let me know.

BobbyTrav at 2006-10-11 14:42:04 -0400

Hi, is there any way to add LDAP groups and users for the "Automatically accept incoming file transfers" option and adding a buddy instead of using OS X's address book and search feature? Feature request. Thanks, Bob

Chris Frisina at 2006-10-11 21:43:54 -0400

Is it possible to change the formatting of text messages to allow for multiple spaces between ims? for exaple if i wanted to seperate a thought, without pressing enter, to put a bunch of spaces(like tab but without it scrolling through buttons)?

rado at 2006-10-12 12:21:56 -0400

hi, unfortunately i'm forced to drop chax because of the lack of offline icq messages... i need to receive offline messages from my colleagues. it's a great pity, i loved the speed of ichat :/

Scott at 2006-10-12 19:33:49 -0400

Feature Request: Dont return from away when sending a message.

MysticalOS at 2006-10-12 21:53:54 -0400

? It doesn't return from away when you send a message. It will return from idle though..

MysticalOS at 2006-10-12 21:59:05 -0400

rado. You are dropping chax because ichat has limited icq functionality?...No addon app can add actual protocol to the client itself...Chax can't add ICQ offlines because it's simply a request ichat client doesn't understand until apple adds that functionality. Apple is more concerned with how pretty it looks than getting it's features squared away with normal aim client..The thing can't even recognize ICQ familar names either, and shows numbers only..Although in online bug database apple does acknowledge the address book icq number bug where you put someones icq number in and it won't show nickname in buddylist unless you enter an icq number in as an aim number instead...at least that oversight is fixed in 10.5..

einsteinium at 2006-10-13 10:34:01 -0400

I'm using version 1.4.5 and was deleting entries from the chat log. I noticed when i deleted from the bottom, the log viewer would lock up and i'd have to close it and reopen it. if i deleted from the top or middle it worked correctly.