Here's the final release of Chax 1.4.8. The only addition from the beta is a new option to automatically clear out old activity log entries, as the log can get pretty large after a while. This is most likely the last release of Chax until Leopard comes out. In the past year I've done just about as much as I can to make iChat more usable, and I think I've about reached the limit in terms of making solid, nondisruptive enhancements. iChat in Leopard looks like it'll be a significant improvement over Tiger, but I'm sure there will still be a place for Chax :)

Changes from 1.4.7:

  • (New) Support for vertically oriented tabs on the left and right sides of message windows
  • (Feature improvement) Added an option to have the activity log automatically clear after a certain length of time
  • (Bug) Fixed a problem where tab animations became stuck when opening or closing a tab
  • (Bug) Tear-off windows are now always the same size as the window they are removed from

120 comments:

Alex at 2007-03-10 03:10:57 -0500

You rock! I love Chax! If you were a girl, I'd kiss you (lawsuit impending).

souki at 2007-03-10 04:50:55 -0500

hi, the download link at http://www.ksuther.com/chax/ shows version 1.4.7 but links to 1.4.8 cheers

Dana Spiegel at 2007-03-10 08:38:17 -0500

I love Chax! Thanks so much for building it. There's one thing that I'd love to see: saving which windows are open on quit, and reopening them. When someone asks me something, and I don't have a chance to get back to them, I leave the chat window open. But if I quit ichat, my open windows are gone when I re-open ichat. Thanks!

Michael at 2007-03-10 16:48:11 -0500

The German localization is still missing some translations. As far as I can tell, these are (each with a translation by me): more_info = "Weitere Informationen"; send_sms = "SMS schicken"; reveal_in_finder = "Im Finder zeigen"; searching = "Suche..."; invalidsmsnumber_title = "Ungültige SMS-Nummer"; invalidsmsnumber_msg = "Die Nummer im Adressbuch scheint keine gültige Telefonnummer in den USA zu sein. Der SMS-Versand per AIM unterstützt nur Telefone in den USA. Bitte überprüfen Sie, dass die Nummer %@ in den USA ist und eine Vorwahl hat."; autoclear_after = "Aktivitäts-Speicherdauer"; Also, in the German localization, the dropdown menu for the Recent Activity Length doesn't show up - as seen here: http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bild1xs7.jpg

Richard Franco at 2007-03-11 16:24:03 -0400

Thank you for your hard work and amazing result. I wanted to ask you about the fact that console.log is showing the following every 30 seconds or so. Do you know why? /Applications/iChat.app/Contents/MacOS/iChat: CMSCreateDataProviderOrGetInfo : Invalid colorspace type

Richard Franco at 2007-03-11 16:25:00 -0400

oh and system.log too apparently /Applications/iChat.app/Contents/MacOS/iChat: CMSCreateDataProviderOrGetInfo : Invalid colorspace type

Hg at 2007-03-12 07:48:09 -0400

Thank You for your work. i use the growl notifications. Each time a contact logs in or out... the colorspace problem is still occcuring in this new version. If you need more informations, please let me know.

R0M at 2007-03-12 09:08:51 -0400

Great job !

TigerX4 at 2007-03-12 13:03:27 -0400

Hello, i think it will be a very good thing to add a button for fully desactivate the activity log. And i would like to say you thank you very much for Chax. Sorry for my bad English.

Sam at 2007-03-12 13:12:48 -0400

Would it be possible to make jabber and aim contact lists show in the same window rather than seperate windows? That would be a killer feature.

jake at 2007-03-13 16:42:10 -0400

would it be possible to make the "Current iTunes Song" status also an option for being away?

Christine at 2007-03-13 17:47:23 -0400

I love Chax! But, I have a small issue...I have enabled the growl feature in the chax menu in ichat, but it doesn't show up in the system preferences. Help!

Doug at 2007-03-14 10:22:53 -0400

Love Chax, been using it for quite some time now. Just makes iChat so much better. Here's a suggestion for ya, possibly for the Leopard edition because I think we are all comfortable knowing that Apple isn't going to come close to building the perfect UI (unless they steal / buy Adium or Proteus possibly). Adium has a lovely feature where you can pin the contact list to a screen edge and then set it up to auto-hide/show much like the dock. I find this to be a wonderful feature as i usually could care less about haviing my contact list always visible, just preferring to see it occasionally, but I do want it to be easily accessible. When Adium is the foreground app, the list will always show, but does the auto-hide thing when its not. Great feature, except it doesn't work so well with VirtueDesktops, as the contact list will be stuck on one screen. Still a great feature I'd love to see. -d

Jackpod at 2007-03-14 15:55:05 -0400

I often hide iChat, and then when I get a chat message I do not see it. Is there a way to get Ichat to unhide itself when a message is received?

Mario at 2007-03-15 10:38:15 -0400

Kudos on an excellent work of software. One feature I particularly enjoy is the Log Viewer, and I hope this gains features over time. There's a small issue with it, though. I employ a cleaning script for my iChats directory (first shown in Macworld at http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2005/11/ichatorganize/index.php , and then I modified it) to organize it into directories. Log Viewer still allows me to read the logs, but each is named in the list as "/ on " and so forth -- it leaves the directory name in. Could you test for this and strip out the directory name if it's there? Shouldn't be too difficult of a fix, and it would make the list of logs much more readable. I can wait for the new version in Leopard. Thanks!

Lee at 2007-03-15 16:47:24 -0400

Just downloaded 1.4.8 and set Tab Location for showing multiple chat tabs in every option 9show left of window, right, bottom, etc.) but always showing tabs at top. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

Paul at 2007-03-16 18:38:07 -0400

Apple + W closes all tabs now. Not just the one that is in front. Bring back single convo closing with shortcut.

HK at 2007-03-16 19:18:47 -0400

Hello there. Amazing work with Chax! Thank you. In the same spirit I have an idea for an app and wanted to talk to you about it. Could we please make contact?

Derrick at 2007-03-17 17:25:18 -0400

Chax is speaking to me! About a week ago, iChat suddenly started speaking IMs that I got when it was not the frontmost application. I didn't see anything in Chax's (or iChat's) prefs about this, but nevertheless uninstalling Chax stopped the problem. Have I found some sort of hidden feature? If so... how do I turn it off? It drives me crazy. (PS: The problem started with 1.4.7, but I upgraded Chax to 1.4.8, and nothing changed.)

sam at 2007-03-17 19:25:08 -0400

I would like to know how to uninstall this.

Srl at 2007-03-17 19:58:02 -0400

Sam: run the installer again, (download it if you have to) and click Remove. First, I love Chax. Suggestion: Chax installer should have a better default selection, especially with regards upgrades. I had already installed Chax for all users. (manually confirmed). Opening the installer to do an upgrade, it says: "Chax is currently installed in the main library folder. .. clicking Install again will reinstall Chax." and the "current user" button is checked by default. Now if I click Install what it actually does is REMOVE it from the /Library and install it in ~/Library. I think if Chax was FOUND in /Library, then the "install for current user" should be checked by default. Even better would be to actually rename the checkbox and buttons to say "Reinstall" instead of "Install". Even better than that would be to label it "Upgrade" if it is a version change. Actually, it would be nice if it showed what is currently installed and if it is different. I don't remember if it does that already.

brh at 2007-03-18 03:17:14 -0400

Hello! Long time user, first time... requester! Now that we have the vertical tabs, how about an option to use cmd+up and cmd+down (or cmd+shift+up/down) to switch tabs? That would make me happy. Not that Chax doesn't already make me happy. 'Cause it does.

jtboyd at 2007-03-18 08:50:17 -0400

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to request enhancements, but I was wondering if you would modify your "Automatically resize the contact list to fit" option or create another option for my suggestion. The problem that I have with iChat is that you cannot queue messages to your buddies, so this means that you can only chat with those who are online. I think a neat feature for iChax would be to automatically resize the window based on who is currently online. This will mean that you would never need to scroll to find any of the your online buddies and you can save space on your screen by not having your full list displayed in the buddy list window all of the time.

jwright at 2007-03-18 18:31:04 -0400

Hello. I just upgraded to Chax 1.4.8 and now my external iSight camera is no longer recognized by either of my Macs. I'm still snooping around the Apple discussion board but so far nothing works. I've unistalled Chax for the time being and repaired permissions, cold-rebooted, attempted to re-apply the iSight update, all to no avail. I should add that I performed the upgrade while iChat was open (stupid, I know, but I was distracted at the moment by my squirming 6 month old!). The iSight is in tip-top condition and I've never had any problems between it and iChat/Chax before today. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Jason

stetson at 2007-03-18 20:41:08 -0400

Hi! I LOVE Chax. It's on the of the best downloads for my mac I've ever taken advantage of. I still have one complaint with ichat that future releases of Chax might be able to cure for me. I love checking out other people's profiles and creating my own that can take advantage of different fonts, colors, etc - ichat doesn't really allow me to do this. If there was an easy way to make a nicer profile and an easier way to see other peoples' (similar to the "More Info" right-click option that Chax gives us but one that would also display the user's info) I would be forever grateful. One other thing is the font colors... between ichat users, there is no problem but when you chat with people on a PC using AIM, my font colors are black and white and their's often show up with random background colors, etc. If Chax could close this gap it would be great. I know these things seem small and stupid, but customizing my appearance on a chatting program is half the fun! Thanks for anything you can do with this and thanks for making Chax as great as it is now! Keep up the great work!

Chris at 2007-03-19 05:00:25 -0400

LOVE IT! I've a request - during an automatic file download from another person, I've found myself accidentally cancelling the file transfer almost EVERY TIME. I tend to be typing a message in the chat window and the download window pops up with the "Stop" button highlighted. Either I hit a letter or the spacebar and it stops the file transfer unintentionally and also doesn't show a record that one may have started. Any way to either make it so that the stop button isn't highlighted or that the download window is not the frontmost window when it occurs? So maybe an auto download occurs but always is NOT the top most?

Ralf at 2007-03-19 08:26:51 -0400

Hey, there are 2 "little" mistakes in the German translation; there's only "More_info" and "send_sms", what really looks a bit strange ;D here's a screenshot: http://www.00raum.de/Ichat_fout.tiff You can easily translate it to: "Mehr Informationen" and "SMS senden" :-) Nevertheless, fantastic work !!!

Goshka! at 2007-03-19 11:41:05 -0400

hi! i wanna localize Chax to Russia is it interesting for you? contact me with email or icq 51915093

Chris Lorensson at 2007-03-19 14:29:18 -0400

Hi there, CHAX Rocks! I have a feature-request: I'd love to have a way to merge all windows (Bonjour, AIM, Jabber) into one window/user-list because I don't care what service my friends are on - but just that I can talk to them.

Steve Major at 2007-03-19 19:54:46 -0400

Somewhere between 10.4.9 and Chax 1.4.8, my Growl notifications broke. I get this in my Console: 2007-03-19 19:50:37.172 iChat[395] GrowlApplicationBridge: The Growl delegate did not supply a registration dictionary, and the app bundle at /Applications/iChat.app does not have one. Please tell this application's developer. I've tried removing Chax (both with the installer and manually) with no success. All my other Growl enabled apps work just fine. Ideas?

Hedi at 2007-03-20 12:55:32 -0400

Glad to see another Chax update. But I'm still worried about the Console messages: "/Applications/iChat.app/Contents/MacOS/iChat: CMSCreateDataProviderOrGetInfo : Invalid colorspace type" which seems to be caused by Chax...

Cory at 2007-03-21 18:41:57 -0400

First off, I *LOVE* Chax! That said, I think a good feature to include would be support for offline messaging. AIM now supports this, but iChat doesn't allow one to open a chat window for offline users. I find this quite annoying. =\

Steven at 2007-03-25 20:50:32 -0400

I think the people above me have made some excellent suggestions, such as using command+up or down to go through tabs, cmd+w for closing one tab, etc. I'd also like to add one. When using Chax to search through the logs, it's only doing searches for EXACT matches of the word. Like if I wanted to look up all conversations that had the word "chax" in them, i MUST type "chax". Typing "cha" will not return any conversations with "chax" in them. Sure, searching for an exact word has it's place, but I don't think it should be the only option, nor the default one : \ Thanks.

Steven at 2007-03-26 01:38:13 -0400

after trying it out it appears that cmd+w DOES close only one tab, so i revoke that part of my previous post

Wiechu at 2007-03-26 06:44:10 -0400

Hi! After upgrading to 1.4.8 I've noticed there's some sort of bug with tabbs. As for now I saw that problem twice. Sometimes when I turn on iChat and there are messages awaiting from 2 different persons, message window opens with only one tab. There's no sign of second person which wrote some messages. When I try to write to that person (open chat window with that person) I see message which tells me that I already have window opened with that contact. Like I said that happens not really often. I'm not really sure how to repeat that problem on demand :/

David at 2007-03-27 17:57:14 -0400

Thanks for making Chax - it makes my iChat function better than ever. I had one question, though. Is there a way for iChat to reconnect to the internet without changing my status? For example, when iChat disconnects then reconnect, I can't get it to show my custom away message. It either changes my status to available or shows that I'm away using a default message. Is there no way to reconnect iChat exactly as how it was before disconnecting from the internet?

Benjamin Morin at 2007-03-27 18:54:08 -0400

Yeah, the /Applications/iChat.app/Contents/MacOS/iChat: CMSCreateDataProviderOrGetInfo : Invalid colorspace type is a bit annoying.

jordan at 2007-03-27 21:57:07 -0400

for some reason, since the newest version of chax, my buddy list is not updating people's status and away messages. for some people it says that they are available but when I im them it says that they are offline. For other people it shows incorrect away messages under their name in the buddy list. these errors did not happen before the newest version of chax, could u please look into it, thank you. Other than that this version of chax is the best yet

grue at 2007-03-28 10:17:01 -0400

It would be really, really cool if you could add an option to mute all sounds when you set to away. Very useful for when you want to listen to music in bed without hearing people IM you.

Octaypus at 2007-03-29 02:24:24 -0400

You should impliment a feature that automatically turns up the microphone volume of the isight when ichat launches. That would be baller.

Adrian at 2007-03-31 00:00:09 -0400

Hi. I Chax. I think the modifications you've made are wonderful. I do have one question. For many of my buddies, I have cell phone numbers added as second addresses so I can text them if they aren't online. However in the cases of some buddies, it seems arbitrary as to which address (the AIM or the mobile) Chax displays by default. For instance, for one of my buddies, chax displays the mobile text option, but as soon as the person logs on it switches to their AIM and then back to the mobile when the person logs off. That situation is ideal. But for the rest of my buddies, it displays only the mobile by default, regardless of whether the person is online or not. Perhaps in a future version there could be a preference to defer to the AIM address when the person is signed on, and use only the mobile number when the person is signed off. I know thati can always alt click on the name to choose which address I want to send a message to, but it is also handy to just be able to look at list and see whether a person is sgned on to chat. Again, keep up the great work. Your product is awesome.

roens at 2007-03-31 01:45:06 -0400

Lovely software, thank you. I would love to be able to specify that some folks (by group?) be told I'm away and others not. Maybe this is a limitation of the various protocols (mainly important to me on AIM). But it would make my life so much more simple if certain folks could not know I've just dropped out of screen saver mode (and am now at my computer).

Ryan at 2007-04-01 19:25:48 -0400

Like a previous poster (Bryan) said on another post, I can't see anyone's icons when Chax is running - almost everyone has the AIM guy. Not a deal breaker, but annoying. Any ideas?

Bassguy at 2007-04-01 20:13:20 -0400

I'd just like to thank you for making Chax. It makes my life easier.

Lou at 2007-04-02 18:17:46 -0400

Not sure if this feature has been requested. - Ability to choose some people to be viewable when offline, but not all people. Is that even possible? Thanks!!! Love the program

costap at 2007-04-08 10:34:07 -0400

Please add the ability for chax to execute an AppleScript when a message (or audio/video chat invitation) arrives. iCAR used to do this but it is non-fucntional on Intel Macs. I would be happy to donate for this feature.

suzanne raphael at 2007-04-08 13:06:55 -0400

Thought u might like to know...I've just spent the better part of the last couple hours trying to figure out why when I clicked on the Chax tab of the preferences, I got a collapsed window. As in I could not see any of the prefs. I trashed prefs, did system maintenance stuff, etc. etc., apparently to no avail. Until I made a discovery. I run a dual-monitor set up. My primary monitor is an Apple cinema display (the old one--17"). My second (don't laugh) is the classic Apple 13" RGB, running off some old display card I don't remember the specs for. I always position my iChat on that second display--that and a weather widget, the time, blah, blah. It's perfect. However, and this seems to be a recent phenomenon, the only time I get this Chax error is when I do position it that way. As in, if I position everything on my primary monitor, everything is fine. But the minute I move my buddy window to my second monitor and try to access Chax prefs, no dice. But if i move the buddy list back to the primary monitor, back they come. So, I find this interesting and no big deal, now that I figured it out. I don't know if this has to do with something in the Chax code, or if the oldy-moldy status of my second monitor/display card combo is finally catching up with me, but either way, I thought u might like to know. Cheers and thanks for a FABULOUS iChat tool. I love Chax to the MAX. :-) s.

John Labovitz at 2007-04-09 16:22:50 -0400

I, too, have found that Growl notifications no longer work (with 1.4.8). I'm pretty sure this broke in the last update. It'd be great to have this working again...

mike at 2007-04-09 22:21:52 -0400

hi, i lost all notification sounds (in preferences under notifications tab it makes a sound when i test it there but not in chat) in ichat and removing chax didn't help. i can't say for sure that chax did it, but i thought i'd ask here if anyone knows what happened. i've re installed it and re-checked and un-checked and re-uninstalled etc. i even got someone's working version of ichat in an archive and tried that, deleted all pref files that i could find. any ideas, thanks

Zach Raffensperger at 2007-04-10 00:57:58 -0400

A feature that would forward messages while away to a different AIM screen name would be very convenient! (for example, to forward the messages while im away from my computer to my treo aim screen name)

JR at 2007-04-11 14:38:50 -0400

An option to have chax hide users when they go mobile would be amazing. They just sit on my list taking up space and I never message them. Perhaps an option for each person would be ideal too.

Mario Panighetti at 2007-04-11 20:59:09 -0400

Thanks for all you've done with Chax! I've gotten in the habit of installing it first thing when I get a new computer. ^_^ Can't wait to see what you bring to the Leopard version!

David at 2007-04-12 07:00:57 -0400

Can I "second" JR's idea? Mobile chatters on my buddy list drive me bonky.... : )

Martin S at 2007-04-13 10:20:08 -0400

I have a feature request: I often have a lot of tabs open and to see all of them I have to have the chat window really big (otherwise I won't see any new tabs). To make the tabs a bit smaller the full name is required as the tab title. First name and first letter of last name would be enough: John S. instead of the long version. What do you think?

patrick collins at 2007-04-21 17:23:16 -0400

I would love an option to define an alert for certain buddies who come online.. Such as: if my someone important comes online it will beep at me... if a standard friend comes on, nothing happens. -patrick

Lars at 2007-04-22 06:21:42 -0400

Just wired a small donation because I really enjoy iChat in combination with Chax very much! Thanks for the good work... Lars

Mike at 2007-04-22 23:54:34 -0400

There is a borderless iChat plugin that just came out but it doesn't fully work when Chax has tabbed messages enabled. Any chance this could be added/fixed in an update? The borderless iChat is at http://myobie.backpackit.com/pub/666902

Eddie at 2007-04-25 23:44:24 -0400

Please add borderless ichat feature in the next release!

Trisha at 2007-04-26 13:20:06 -0400

LOVE Chax - thank you! Would you consider adding a feature in a future version - the option to keep the buddy list on top of other windows? I also like the earlier suggestion to have it docked to a screen edge, then auto show/hide like Drag Thing. This would allow me to keep it on top when I need it to be, but slide it into the screen edge like a file cabinet drawer when I don't need it on top. Thanks for writing such a great app!

Ian McCorkell at 2007-04-26 18:24:37 -0400

Please add disabling of buddy pictures (so users get the default network icon), and borderless windows to the next release!

Alan Keister at 2007-04-29 19:47:33 -0400

Hi Keith - I work part of the AIM team at AOL and have some ideas for you. Please contact me at my email address if you would like to chat about them. - Alan

Marcus at 2007-04-30 09:07:01 -0400

Hi! With ICQ 6 and iChat can Users make Audio and Videochats! I have tested! It Works! But we have one Problem: Only ICQ 6 Users, can make the audio and video sessions! Mac User have only a Audio Icon, behind the Name. And if you will make a Audiosession, there will be come a error message: Sorry, your Contact is in a Audio Chat. Can you find a Anwser for this problem? Thanks!

bob at 2007-04-30 14:56:09 -0400

There's a "thing" I came across earlier today that I remembered happening differently in ichat than chax. When you hit the green "+" symbol in iChat, the window opens just wide enough.... But when you do it with Chax installed, it opens to take up the whole friggin' screen! Any way of keeping the iChat behavior for that fullscreen mode?

Cory at 2007-04-30 19:23:12 -0400

Chax is great, but I have 2 suggestions. Would it be possible to create a way to transfer files through jabber and also if in the menu bar there was an option to view both AIM buddies and Jabber Buddies?

Cory at 2007-04-30 19:24:39 -0400

Chax is great, but I have 3 suggestions. Would it be possible to create a way to transfer files through jabber, include a search function on the iChat buddy list, and also if in the menu bar there was an option to view both AIM buddies and Jabber Buddies?

Steve at 2007-04-30 19:40:37 -0400

I would love to see jabber and aim buddies both in the same window! Thanks, great plugin!

Luke at 2007-05-01 09:38:52 -0400

My status in iChat keeps being set to the name of the active application, and it's driving all my friends mad. Is this anything to do with Chax? is there any way to stop it?

clint at 2007-05-01 13:02:46 -0400

Hi, My Growl notifications for this app aren't working properly, i wasn't receiving anything. So i removed it from the list of growl apps, and now i can't get it to re-register in growl. I've tried uninstalling it and reinstalling, removing all files associated with it, but growl won't re-register it. any help?

Christopher at 2007-05-02 00:11:17 -0400

I'd like to vote for David's request from roughly a month ago... It's nice that Chax will automagically reconnect you, but it's annoying to set an away message, especially when leaving for a day or two, only to have your status set back to "Available" when Chax auto-reconnects you.

Jeff at 2007-05-04 08:24:07 -0400

Hey… awesome app! One little feature request though: when I open an old chat, I’d love for it to open as a new tab in the frontmost window instead of the oldest open window. Possible? Thanks again for a wonderful haxie!

veshman at 2007-05-09 12:02:18 -0400

has anyone had problems with the video chat after installing this? when I do a video chat with someone, they can see me, but i only see myself. anyone have a similar experience? thanks, bhavesh

Jules Black at 2007-05-11 21:02:59 -0400

Hi I was iChatting to a regular friend, and I tried to send a jpeg file to her. We've done it before, but now the message window accepted only text from me, not the file I was trying to attach. This is ONLY SINCE I'VE INSTALLED CHAX. Connection?

sitz at 2007-05-14 22:08:08 -0400

iChat just crashed out on me, and the thread which crashed lists chax in the traceback; would you like a copy of the crash report?

Alessio at 2007-05-15 06:47:51 -0400

FEATURE REQUEST I have one request: Can you load chat history (maybe today and today-1 only) when you open a chat session with a buddy? This is helpful when you chat and close the window, or when you go offline and then you continue a chat (maybe the day after). Apart from this, Chax is #1!!!

Greg Smith at 2007-05-17 01:31:04 -0400

Growl support has broken for me too.

corn at 2007-05-17 03:19:41 -0400

Luke.. I had the same problem with my status becoming whatever application i was in. It's not Chax.. it's Spirited Away

Tim Smith at 2007-05-20 13:50:39 -0400

NO HISTORY PLUGIN LIKE ADIUM OR PIDGIN FOR PC http://www.andrewpangborn.com/projects_gaim.php come on! This can't be hard make it a PRo option people have 2 pay for?

Zach at 2007-05-20 21:41:59 -0400

The SMS feature is great, but would be even greater if you could make it so when you clicked on a number in address book there would be an ichax option, much like adium has.

ultram info at 2007-05-22 16:33:36 -0400

ultram does ultram generic

Ryan at 2007-05-24 17:13:10 -0400

Has anyone found a fix to growl working again? Mine also stoped working...

Steve Major at 2007-05-25 19:17:30 -0400

^ not me, Growl is busted no matter what I do. It works on my desktop but not on my laptop. And it is Chax, I have a metric TON of Growl enabled stuff and all of them work perfectly.

macboyx at 2007-05-27 12:51:16 -0400

I also am having an issue that when I hit CMD + W all my windows close, not just the current tab. This happens from time to time when I reinstall, I've tried the beta versions uninstalling, reinstalling and I'm at my wits end... can you help? I LOVE CHAX! Thanks.

Mike S. at 2007-05-27 21:24:35 -0400

I need to remove 1.4.3, when I downloaded 1.4.8 and ran remove, it said it removed Chax, but it didn't (when I start up iChat again, it tells me a new version is available and the pref screens are still there). Where can I get 1.4.3 to remove it? p.s. also tried installing 1.4.8 then removing it, but that only takes me back to 1.4.3!

Kaegan at 2007-05-28 15:56:28 -0400

Chax seems to be responsible for iChat taking up almost an entire core of my Core 2 Duo BlackBook to itself. When I uninstall it, iChat runs fine.

jordan at 2007-05-30 01:39:52 -0400

I know this is a very obvious add-on that many people like in windows aim, but it hasn't been mentioned in a while so I guess I will bring it up..first off this version of chax runs the better than ever, but the only problem is that whenever I am logged in I get swamped with ims... is there a way that invisibility can be added like is is on the windows aim, and various other aim clients ( meebo)...thanx

Steve Major at 2007-06-02 11:46:40 -0400

I FIXED MY GROWL NOTIFICATIONS! Through trial and error I found that two other Input Manager additions were conflicting with it - GrowlCode and GrowlPhoto. Unfortunately I don't know who's code is stomping on whos, so hopefully the dev will read this.

Allen Hancock at 2007-06-03 08:13:25 -0400

has anyone else noticed a problem where there will be a extra brushed metal between my status line and AIM buddy list? I think it is related to having chax auto-size the list. Happens when logging back in to AIM.. Even if this is a chax bug, I am not giving up chax!

caixiaoeva at 2007-06-04 21:10:53 -0400

there is a bug. If i activate user icon in the dock, everytime i click the icon, it crashes. If i disable it, it gets back to normal again.

MacEricG at 2007-06-05 16:36:41 -0400

You rock! Great product! Any chance of making the tabs of Chax display vertically with text on it's side so the tabs take up less space?

Steve Major at 2007-06-05 19:31:46 -0400

^ second that. It's what I was wishing for when the vertical tabs were introduced!

Vokkyt at 2007-06-07 17:17:52 -0400

Great program. Love it to death. Problem with 1.4.8; for some reason, whenever iChat is in the background, it runs at 100% CPU. When I removed Chax (which pained me to do...) it stopped the heavy CPU use. Ideas?

Nate at 2007-06-09 03:02:19 -0400

In Gaim (or at least Gaim Portable) there is a thing called a "buddy pounce" that will do something from a list of options for a particular user, such as when they come online, it opens a chat window with them and sends a user-defined string of text to start the conversation. I thought that might be a cool addition to an already extremely useful program. Quite a useful chat history reader, but could the search feature be a bit less specific in its results (an example would be it displaying more results for "hello" than for "hell").

Nate at 2007-06-09 03:22:28 -0400

Oh yes, and, like Adium, would it be possible to have something that synchronises contact's avatars into Address book?

clint at 2007-06-09 21:05:19 -0400

I believe that evan came up with a solution for this usage case. Instead of using @loader_path and linking the frameworks, plugin authors should manually get a NSBundle reference to their bundle and [bundle load] that bundle. A example Carbon implementation for plugins is the GrowlTunesPlugin (which already manually loaded the framework). this was taken from the growl forums. it talks about how to fix problems when growl apps are interfering with each other, like one user stated earlier.

dino at 2007-06-11 11:39:10 -0400

can anyone help me get my growl notifications working again?

Darren at 2007-06-11 17:31:25 -0400

Today I installed the Safari 3 beta on my mac. I don't know if this is just a coincidence or what, but chax locks up now. when I get a new message initial message, it doesn't show up on the screen. Uninstalling chax seemed to fix problem.

MIles at 2007-06-11 18:40:43 -0400

I loaded Safari 3 today and before too long realized that had an issue with iChat. I uninstalled Safari 3 and iChat worked properly. Reinstalled and had the same issue. I did have Chax. I uninstalled Chax and Things seem to be ok now. So the problem appears to be a conflict between Chax 1.4.8 and Safari 3. I hope this helps someone.

MysticalOS at 2007-06-11 21:40:24 -0400

noticed the same miles. although more specifically a conflict between chax and webkit 522.11 which is used to render the actual conversations in chat windows.

Rev. Mitcz at 2007-06-12 02:19:37 -0400

I, too, noticed that iChat is giving me issues after installing Safari 3.0b. On my MacBook Pro, it hangs every time a new conversation is started, then says "an error occurred trying to start the chat" and then it works fine (for that conversation). The process is repeated for every convo. On my G5, there's no hanging on new convos, but it does pop the error message. Oddly enough, however, there's no alert sounds. Both of these instances are using 10.4.9 and Chax 1.4.8 Just an FYI.

Quinn at 2007-06-12 02:24:01 -0400

Recently, I’ve begun experiencing odd behavior with incoming chats (almost all of them). When the first message is received I here the incoming sound effect, and about 30 seconds later i get an error: “There was an error joining this chat." When I click “ok” the tab appears and the incoming message is there. This is happening more often than not, and only when I have chax installed.

Steven Jay Cohen at 2007-06-12 08:04:19 -0400

Thanks for Chax! I just love it. One problem. I tested out Safari 3 Beta yesterday. I have since uninstalled it. Now, I am not getting growl notifications from iChat anymore. Uninstalling and reinstalling both Growl and Chax did not help. All other applications have re-registered since the reinstall except for Chax. I am wondering if the uninstall of Safari 3 leaves something changed that is alien to Chax. I know that Chax seemed to sputter while I was using Safari 3 (the primary reason why I uninstalled it). Let me know if I can help test out a fix. Keep up the wonderful work. Steven

MysticalOS at 2007-06-12 14:30:01 -0400

the growl support was added by chax, that's why it stopped working when you removed it Steven. Safari updates webkit, webcore, webjava, and even installs a newer version of dock.app. ichat is being affected by webkit, which is used to render conversation window.

MysticalOS at 2007-06-12 14:39:54 -0400

YAY i found a workaround for the problem with chax. Disable "automatically accept text invitations" Upon disabling that they will no longer freeze up ichat when they are received.

Steven Jay Cohen at 2007-06-12 17:37:46 -0400

You misunderstand. Chax will NOT work with Growl anymore AT ALL. Even AFTER uninstalling Safari 3.

MysticalOS at 2007-06-12 17:58:55 -0400

I would say remove the checkbox for grown support in settings, then, in growl pref pane, unregister chax (delete it). Then, relaunch ichat with chax, and checkbox to enable growl again, let it re-register with growl.

Steven Jay Cohen at 2007-06-12 18:06:40 -0400

It does NOT re-register.

Steven Jay Cohen at 2007-06-12 21:15:55 -0400

Solution from the Growl forum was to remove ALL other Input Managers and let Chax register first. They go on to reccomend that you implement the following solution: "I believe that evan came up with a solution for this usage case. Instead of using @loader_path and linking the frameworks, plugin authors should manually get a NSBundle reference to their bundle and [bundle load] that bundle. A example Carbon implementation for plugins is the GrowlTunesPlugin (which already manually loaded the framework)."

Adam Rice at 2007-06-12 22:58:51 -0400

I'm having the same problem as a few others. I installed the Safari beta and since then I'm getting the odd message delay. I get the “There was an error joining this chat.” error, hit ok, and then the message appears whenever I get a new message. Any fix?

Alex at 2007-06-13 11:11:59 -0400

I would love you to make a unified contact list. If you have to tab it like the chat window, so be it, but I absolutely hate having 2 or 3 or more buddy lists taking up real-estate! I would donate/buy a license instantly if you added this feature.

Thomas Ingham at 2007-06-13 13:36:32 -0400

I'm having to hit enter twice to get my latest message to appear in addition to the error messages after receiving a text invite. Turning off the auto-accept seems to have worked around the problem for now.

Pat at 2007-06-13 22:23:43 -0400

I've been getting this error too, please fix this, it's the only problem with chax! :D

Calvin at 2007-06-14 04:22:37 -0400

I love Chax but I am having one problem. When people IM me. I get a long pause, then an error message about not able to enter the chat. When I click OK, the IM is there. I just installed Safari 3 beta. I wonder if that has anything to do with it? Thanks - Cal

Vermilion at 2007-06-14 13:11:38 -0400

Chax does have major issues with the Safari 3 beta and the new version of WebKit. I'd like to try compiling Chax from source against the new WebKit, to see if that works. However, I can't compile from source. Firstly, I receive an error in Chax.m: : No such file or directory This is fixed by changing it so that it doesn't assume Growl is installed, and instead uses the included Growl.framework: "Growl.framework/Headers/Growl.h" Compilation continues until I see this error: cd "/Users/colin/Desktop/Chax 1.4.8 Source" /usr/bin/gcc-4.0 -x objective-c -arch ppc -pipe -std=gnu99 -Wno-trigraphs -fpascal-strings -fasm-blocks -g -O0 -DSUPPORT_UTF8 -DPOSIX_MALLOC_THRESHOLD=10 -fmessage-length=0 -mtune=G5 -mfix-and-continue -mmacosx-version-min=10.4 -I/Users/colin/Desktop/Chax\ 1.4.8\ Source/build/Chax.build/Development/Chax_main.build/Chax_main.hmap -F/Users/colin/Desktop/Chax\ 1.4.8\ Source/build/Development -F/Users/colin/Desktop/Chax -F1.4.8 -FSource -I/Users/colin/Desktop/Chax\ 1.4.8\ Source/build/Development/include -I/Users/colin/Desktop/Chax\ 1.4.8\ Source/build/Chax.build/Development/Chax_main.build/DerivedSources -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk -include /Library/Caches/com.apple.Xcode.501/SharedPrecompiledHeaders/AppKit-gevbzjngsrortkduzrrhfxcznmxd/AppKit.h -c /Users/colin/Desktop/Chax\ 1.4.8\ Source/../PSMTabBarControl/source/NSBezierPath_AMShading.m -o /Users/colin/Desktop/Chax\ 1.4.8\ Source/build/Chax.build/Development/Chax_main.build/Objects-normal/ppc/NSBezierPath_AMShading.o powerpc-apple-darwin8-gcc-4.0.1: /Users/colin/Desktop/Chax 1.4.8 Source/../PSMTabBarControl/source/NSBezierPath_AMShading.m: No such file or directory powerpc-apple-darwin8-gcc-4.0.1: warning: '-x objective-c' after last input file has no effect powerpc-apple-darwin8-gcc-4.0.1: no input files powerpc-apple-darwin8-gcc-4.0.1: no input files powerpc-apple-darwin8-gcc-4.0.1: no input files powerpc-apple-darwin8-gcc-4.0.1: no input files powerpc-apple-darwin8-gcc-4.0.1: no input files Kent, I'd love to know how YOU'RE able to compile Chax on your Mac. (I'm on a MacBook Pro, Mac OS X 10.4.9, Xcode 2.4.1.)

Vermilion at 2007-06-14 13:12:29 -0400

(Reposting. WordPress assumed I typed in some HTML.) However, I can’t compile from source. Firstly, I receive an error in Chax.m: <Growl/Growl.h>: No such file or directory This is fixed by changing it so that it doesn’t assume Growl is installed, and instead uses the included Growl.framework: “Growl.framework/Headers/Growl.h”

Ryan J. Bonnell at 2007-06-14 13:49:03 -0400

I downloaded the Safari 3.x beta yesterday and believe I've found a "bug" in Chax 1.4.8. When the preference to "automatically accept text invitations" is enabled, iChat fill freeze up for a brief delay when someone sends an IM and then popup an error message saying "An error occurred while attempting to join the chat". I don't know if Chax depends on SIMBL, but I had to uninstall SIMBL in order to Safari to launch and that's when the problems with Chax started.

Paul at 2007-06-14 15:11:37 -0400

"Error Joining Chat" when using Chax 1.4.8 when someone IMs me after upgrading to Safari 3. I've seen this problem in a few forums and no one seems to know what is up.

Seth at 2007-06-14 15:55:34 -0400

Is there anyway to turn on timestamps for each message?

Calvin at 2007-06-14 19:04:11 -0400

When I unchecked "automatically accept text invitations" in the preferences it solved the problem. But sometimes there is a 1-2 second pause when responding to IMs.

MysticalOS at 2007-06-15 00:19:50 -0400

The pause isn't chax, that's an apple bug. http://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14092 as for the other problems, if people actually READ comments the solution was posted like 10-15 posts ago. But now that 1.4.9b1 is out he fixed the webkit 522 compatiblity with text invitations already.

Kyle Ellman at 2007-06-24 21:09:29 -0400

It would be awesome if you could implement an option to hide mobile AIM users instead of just warning before messaging them.