Chax 3.0 Alpha 4

Tobias at 2009-09-08 15:01:12 -0400

First, thanks for the regular builds! However, with Alpha 4, ICQ messages still seem to be wrapped up in HTML. This happens at least when talking to people using Adium and Miranda.

Robert at 2009-09-08 15:32:29 -0400

iTunes Song status is still not working properly. Worked only once after started it for a first time.

Robert at 2009-09-08 15:38:56 -0400

It's working again ;-) strange

Andrew at 2009-09-08 15:50:46 -0400

I know that the bug where using the ichat minimenu to select a contact still brings up ichat, rather than routing through chax. Any idea on when this will be fixed? This is the biggest bug for me so far, though I'm still sticking with chax because it's been so great over the years.

Kent Sutherland at 2009-09-08 17:35:50 -0400

@Andrew: I'm planning on moving over to a passive loader with the next release, which will fix that problem.

Andrew at 2009-09-08 20:12:25 -0400

Cool. Thanks for the update, Kent :)

Devin at 2009-09-08 21:06:30 -0400

Hey, glad to hear about the passive loader thing. My friend just IMed me when Chax was not open, and iChat opened instead, although that was supposed to be fixed in alpha 3. Will the passive loader thing also fix that?

Kent Sutherland at 2009-09-08 21:44:40 -0400

Yes, it will fix that also. The reason iChat is opening instead is because Chax isn't being used to launch iChatAgent. You'll need to kill iChatAgent and relaunch with Chax for the fix in alpha 3 to apply.

Devin at 2009-09-08 21:45:51 -0400

Oh, ok, so do you have to do that every time you start up?

Kent Sutherland at 2009-09-08 22:53:53 -0400

You need to do that every launch only if you have the option set so that iChat connect at login without actually opening. If you only login in when iChat launches you should only have to do that the first time.

Jason Wagner at 2009-09-08 23:20:16 -0400

Hey Kent. Thanks so much for taking the time to work on Chax for us. This was the first application I realized I was missing when I upgraded to SL. I'm happy to see that you are working so diligently to bring it back up to speed. Now for the bug report... :p I am able to set my "Current iTunes Status" now with Alpha 4, however I'm experiencing the same problem that Andrew reported in Alpha 3: "When a user’s iTunes status changes it re-sends a ”came online” message to growl, despite them having been available and online the whole time." I am also seeing the " became available. ( - )" messages in my IMs each time the user changes a song. thanks again!

Dave at 2009-09-09 02:31:33 -0400

Hi Kent. Thanks again, you have no idea how hard it is to get through my work day without Chax showing me visually who has sent messages -- so I can decide if I need to read them now or if it can wait and not interrupt my workflow. But please don't forget to add back my number 2 "can't-live-without" feature before Chax 3 goes final: Auto Hide!

no_poem at 2009-09-09 08:27:07 -0400

Thx for Chax. Please do change the font to fix the encoding (cp1251 not show) preview messages in tabs of chats window

Andrew Jung at 2009-09-09 11:54:31 -0400

Hello, would there be a way that you could add the ability to have chat windows have a slider to change the opacity of the window? That way if you find that the chat window is bothering you but you need it open or if want to have a chat open but not have others know that you have a chat window open, you could drag the opacity down to like 20% or something. I haven't seen an example on the Mac, but NateOn for the PC does this. Cheers, Andrew.

Dave at 2009-09-09 13:52:56 -0400

uh oh... still crashing on me when i join a group chat. even after i disabled auto-accept text invitations.

Shawn S at 2009-09-09 15:38:04 -0400

First thanks for the quick updates. I know from reading the comments that everyone has their priorities, but I thought I'd throw mine into the ring too. Messages with HTML formatting when sending to clients such as Adium. I'm stuck using Adium right now as co-workers are complaining about the HTML tags in my IMs, and I really hate Adium. Thanks again! ~Shawn

Azee at 2009-09-09 16:46:22 -0400

Works perfect now!!!! Big Tanks, NOT is better chaxxxxx!

Devin at 2009-09-10 00:17:53 -0400

One feature that would be really nice is if the unified contacts list would recognize multiple contacts from the same Address Book card and combine them. Right now, I’ll get two listings of the same person, which seems unnecessary. Of course, it would probably have to do things like maybe only work if they’re in the same group and have the same status, and maybe it would default to the account that’s highest on your list in preferences (so if my friend is on both AIM and Google Talk, double-clicking his name will open up an AIM window since I have AIM listed first in Accounts). And if you wanted to send from a different account, you could, since iChat will give you the recipients bar at the top of the window. Thanks!

hahajojo at 2009-09-10 00:47:12 -0400

would love the auto-hide in the next build! thanks so much!

ti16 at 2009-09-10 04:30:30 -0400

Hi i am still having problems with the html tags under icq. A friend of mine gets always html tags when i write him. i hope you can help me i am using 10.6 and the newest version of chax. She uses the newest ubuntu under 10.5 she didn't saw these tags... please help me :( pleeeaaasssseee mail me! :-) but all in all thank you that you did a version for 10.6! thank you very much

Ranmaru at 2009-09-10 15:11:26 -0400

Found a little bug: if you close the unified contact list with the keyboard shortcut (alt-cmd-1) and a message window is open, it's also closed. Other than that it works great so far. Keep up the good work! ^.^

Mike at 2009-09-10 17:28:52 -0400

Mine is also crashing on group chat invitations, using auto-accept or not. Thanks for such quick updates!

ry at 2009-09-11 11:09:13 -0400

So glad you're trying to keep pace with Apple's moving targets. Just so that it does not get completely forgotten: My "killer app" feature from the previous version was, believe it or not, the "Away message on Screensaver" checkbox. (I'm also very pleased that the Auto-Accept and Contact List sizing features made it into the v3 alpha! good job!) Keep up the good work!

me at 2009-09-11 14:25:24 -0400

looking great so far!!! keep up the good work!

Brian at 2009-09-11 17:43:49 -0400

For what it's worth, I'm still not able to "Change All" so that iChat transcripts open with Chax. Maybe there is a trick I'm missing?

Brian at 2009-09-11 17:47:34 -0400

Update: I still can't do it in "Get Info", but I was able to find RCDefaultApp and change it that way. I had been trying to think of what that app's name was.

Charles at 2009-09-11 22:18:17 -0400

thanks for chax. a3 release notes say: iChatAgent will now launch Chax instead of iChat when receiving a message while iChat isn’t open But for me this does not happen even with a4. Is there a setting for this I'm missing or is it not working?

Alex at 2009-09-12 09:39:43 -0400

At the risk of sounding totally stupid, I have no idea what's happening. When I run the installer, it says Chax is installed, but it's not showing up under applications, I'm still getting multiple buddy list windows, and there's no Chax section in iChat preferences. To me, that makes it seem like it's not installed, but I don't know to actually install it I guess when the computer is telling me it's already there. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!

Ian at 2009-09-12 11:48:31 -0400

This -may- be unrelated, but since the last upgrade my audio notifications in iChat have gone. You know, the little 'whoop' sounds that you get when some sends you a message, or the sound you get when you log on. It may be unrelated since I normally run on mute and so don't know for sure when the sounds disappeared. They were definitely there when I was using the previous version. One other thing that -might- have affected things is that I installed Logic Express 9, but I've done the normal Audio MIDI Setup check and I'm still on 44khz as expected. Any clues as to where to start to look?

Ben at 2009-09-13 03:15:34 -0400

Alex: You might want to read this: http://ksuther.com/blog/?p=124 As Input Managers no longer work as expected in Snow Leopard the method for Chax providing extra features has changed. Basically you drop Chax into your applications folder and launch it instead of iChat. HTH

Lauren at 2009-09-13 04:25:13 -0400

I know it's been mentioned already, and it's seemingly not the way your work seems to go, but have you considered SIMBL for future releases, since it's working in 64-bit mode?

Guillermo at 2009-09-13 12:02:25 -0400

It would be nice that the Growl notifications for status updates would be in two lines, for example, "XXX went offline" would be "XXX" in the first line of the growl notification while "went offline" would be in the body of the notification. Sometimes, for long user names and certain growl notifications themes you cannot see what comes after "XXX went..."

Alex at 2009-09-13 20:32:28 -0400

Ben: Thank you! Somehow I thought I had done that at one point, but I guess not. I'm launching as Chax, but it still says iChat in the top menu bar when I open it. Is that weird/an issue? Thanks!

Brian at 2009-09-13 22:17:06 -0400

I think that having any contacts listed in an address book entry with multiple screennames to appear as one contact in the buddy list is a fantastic idea. This has always annoyed me. Please consider it for the final release! Thanks for all the updates and the hard work!

Kent Sutherland at 2009-09-13 22:18:49 -0400

Alex: No, it's normal for it to say iChat even if you've launched through Chax. Brian: Merging similar contacts based on the Address Book would definitely be great. As of 10.5 it simply wasn't feasible due to iChat's architecture. It remains to be seen if that's true in 10.6 also.

George at 2009-09-14 11:23:52 -0400

Kent, forgive me for nagging, but is it feasible to turn the connection-lost dialog & bouncer into a Growl notification & automatically try to reconnect?

Craigh at 2009-09-14 14:35:12 -0400

I like Chax so I installed the beta4 on SL and it does the job for me ;) thx. one thing that is annoying though: I tend to use dashbaord rarely but need it every once in a while. as my mac is not shut down but put to sleep, it might be that the next time I need dashboard could be days. so it set a shorctut in butler to 'killall Dock' and therewith shut down all dashboard processes. when the command is executed, the dock slides down, and when it comes back up it launches ichat instead of chax. i noticed that immediately, as the ichat icon is added to the right end of the docks apps, and in the middle the chax icon is no active :( means after every 'killall Dock' one has to shut down ichat and start chax manually. well as a workaround i modified the script I launch with butler shortkey to do that automatically. but it is ugly anway :( rgds, CRAIGH

jordan at 2009-09-14 21:06:04 -0400

growl is not working for me at all ( i have the one for snow leopard bc other apps still work with it)

Perry at 2009-09-15 13:01:37 -0400

I still have the same issue. Just like jordan. Though, the new message notification works, none of the other ones do.

Hez at 2009-09-15 13:49:17 -0400

How can I alter what icon Chax uses, right now it keeps using the default iChat icon but I use a customized icon when I open iChat.

Kevin at 2009-09-15 21:03:46 -0400

Just upgraded to SL, installed the new alpha, and noticed that idle times (e.g., "Idle (55 min)") for my Google Talk contacts no longer appear.

adhd at 2009-09-16 02:12:40 -0400

Hi there, thanks for quick update. Just upgraded and noticed that "chat" button in Mail.app doesn't work, nor does the IM "link" in address book widget (both did worked in previous verions). Hope this will be fixed soon as Chax is one of my favourites :-)

adhd at 2009-09-16 02:17:54 -0400

Plus, you cannot change view to "view as handle" in unified contact lists (previously it was displaying "All contacts", now whatever option you choose you get only name displayed. cheers

Jeff at 2009-09-17 08:39:15 -0400

There's a feature that I think should be added. Instead of click on "Always on TOP" for video chat, can you include an option to have it done permanently for all video chat and/or chat windows? Otherwise - it's working great and no bugs so far!

Jon at 2009-09-18 10:19:19 -0400

Is anyone having a problem with a4 on Snow Leopard where your video freezes shortly after starting? I initially thought it was due to various settings as mentioned in this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2134920&start=0&tstart=0 but it seems that Chax is indeed the culprit.

Jon at 2009-09-18 11:47:26 -0400

Ah I believe I solved my earlier problem... I Still had the old Chax InputManager installed. Deleting that seemed to solve that and a number of other issues. Thanks for a great program!

jimbo at 2009-09-18 15:34:26 -0400

Love chax, please add back the hide status. I like to have my ichat say available all the time!

N3RD at 2009-09-20 04:14:22 -0400

Hey Kent, I've to correct myself. As initially mentioned those HTML-blocking doesn't work for all my ICQ-mates. Its really depending on their ICQ client as said from several dudes in here. I found out that it doesn't work for adium, QIP, Pidgin and Trillian. With ICQ its no prob. Maybe you've an idea how to fix that in your next release. Thanks and nice greets again from germany ;) Florian aka N3RD

Max at 2009-09-20 12:24:47 -0400

Hey Kent, Sorry I haven't checked the rest of the list, but on my sl macbook, I seem to not be getting growl nof. in background tabs of my ichat windows (say I am typing to one friend, and in the background another person sends me a message, chax leopard used to display a message for that person) Thanks! - max

Perry at 2009-09-21 21:03:15 -0400

The "Show status changes in messages" doesn't work for me. I have the box checked and everything... And the notifications still don't work either...

neu at 2009-09-22 01:59:04 -0400

I've noticed that toggling 'Use Groups' brings even the fastest of Mac Pros to their knees. Thanks for bringin Chax to SL. Cheers.

Chris at 2009-09-22 11:21:46 -0400

I have experienced same thing as Kevin. Idle times no longer showing. Will this be re-added? Thanks for a great product!!!

me at 2009-09-23 00:51:12 -0400

Hi Kent, I've noticed that if I run a video chat while iChat is open through Chax, I get 100% cpu usage. If I run the same video chat through iChat by itself, I get normal (10-20%) cpu usage. Is there something that can be done about the cpu consumption in this scenario? I'd really like to see lower cpu usage because at 100% the fans on my macbook pro 17" run like a wind tunnel. Keep up the great work, and thanks again for bringing chax to SL.

KevinM at 2009-09-23 18:49:49 -0400

Kent, thanks SO much for continual development of Chax. This new build Alpha 4 for snow leopard has saved me hours of time. Auto Accept feature is favorite, especially when I use it to get back into my work computer from home! Apple needs to pay attention to what you are doing so very well. Thanks again!

Reuben at 2009-09-24 01:23:25 -0400

Hi. I really love Chax and I use it instead of iChat. The only issue I've been getting with it is that if someone sends me pictures it doesn't go to direct messaging or whatever you call it (I forgot). Instead, it sends the picture straight to downloads and I'd have to open it through preview or other application. Usually I can just see it on the chat window.

Alexey at 2009-09-24 14:07:25 -0400

Thank you very much for the updates! But still I have problem using ICQ. Messages that sent to me are unreadable. This is probably because they are encoded with CP1251. Wrong encoding in status message too. Feature to select encoding for ICQ would be great!

Pat at 2009-09-24 17:45:10 -0400

not sure if it's just me but between the snow leopard upgrade and going to this build my iChat only auto-reconnects aol. google and yahoo both need to be manually set back to available. Any ideas?

Ryan Sullivan at 2009-09-26 16:35:35 -0400

@Pat, same here

Ryan Sullivan at 2009-09-26 16:38:23 -0400

@Kent @Brian "Brian: Merging similar contacts based on the Address Book would definitely be great. As of 10.5 it simply wasn’t feasible due to iChat’s architecture. It remains to be seen if that’s true in 10.6 also." You do know that iChat does this already? Say if one of my friends has five screennames, they only show up under one iChat contact with his name. It uses Address Book to do this

Martin at 2009-09-27 05:04:27 -0400

@Ryan sure, but only AIM-Contacts are merged and Jabber-Contacts are merged with each other. But not AIM and Jabber. They are still two entries n the list.

Perry at 2009-09-27 19:26:26 -0400

I'm having a problem with my video chats on Chax. The person I'm chatting with can't hear me. When I switch to iChat, it works. This is just added onto the other issues I've been having. :( -Perry

Sam at 2009-09-27 20:12:09 -0400

If it is at all feasible, please make it so that when I try to IM someone from Quicksilver that the chat is initiated in Chax instead of iChat. Thanks!

Airplanenoise at 2009-09-28 11:00:26 -0400

when folks paste images in chats they come as file transfers instead of inline chats. annoying ! but thanks for the continued support and hard work. chax is great and i was happy to see a version made for snow.

Arseniy Banayev at 2009-09-28 11:25:55 -0400

Before I upgraded to Snow Leopard, I had all my chat transcripts visible in the Log Viewer. Now, they're not there. It seems weird to me, because all of the Activity is still there, up to a few months ago. So why aren't the chats there?

Kristian at 2009-09-29 17:28:12 -0400

@Airplanenoise Oh thank heavens you're having the same problem! I'd become convinced there was some setting I'd missed. It's driving me batty! I work with my roommate via IM on projects pasting images back and forth and it's seriously busted our workflow!

Martin at 2009-09-30 05:11:57 -0400

@Airplanenoise @Kristian Just disable auto-accept file transfers and the image will be displayed inline ;)

Zack at 2009-09-30 06:54:01 -0400

just wanted to report, in a4, the log viewer crashes chax anytime you try to view a log. thanks for working hard on this product! looking forward to the next non-beta update :)

Kai at 2009-09-30 06:55:16 -0400

features i love to see combine contacts with the same addressbook entry search contacts in contactlist (its nice when i want to write an offline msg and dont want go thru the offline list) rest is fine for me :D

Chelle at 2009-10-01 17:15:33 -0400

Thanks for the fast update. I am also having a problem during a video chat where the other person can't hear me. Also hope you can add the feature where you can hide ichat when it's inactive again! :)

Michael Potter at 2009-10-02 08:32:05 -0400

Chax is amazing! I was so psyched to see that you had an alpha release available for Snow Leopard, as I was sure gonna miss it after I upgraded. Anyway, is there a way (or future plans) to consolidate contacts across multiple IM networks within the (All) Contacts window? I have several people who use both Jabber and AIM simultaneously, and they appear as two different contacts on my Contacts window. Other than that, your alpha is already amazingly functional. :D Thank you!

Gerald at 2009-10-02 11:45:52 -0400

I really do miss the contextual popup I used to have, whereby I can choose "View Logs" by contextually clicking on the persons name in iChat. Now I have to go to Window:Log Viewer.

James at 2009-10-03 17:08:12 -0400

Awesome work! I find that when my laptop wakes up from sleep (when I open the laptop screen) my gtalk list doesn't always come up in my unified contact list. It doesn't happen all the time, but maybe 50% of the time which then requires me to quit ichat/x and restart it ... which usually fixed things. Any thoughts?

Aaron at 2009-10-06 12:07:39 -0400

Great program BTW! It worked perfectly on Snow Leopard 10.1. However, runnin' Chax with video doesn't work so I had to quit and use iChat temporary to work with video chat. Keep up the great work!

Devin at 2009-10-06 19:07:42 -0400

Just to chime in, since people are having trouble with video chats, I did a video chat today (to a Tiger machine, I believe) with the other person on iChat and had no problems. I didn’t even remember people had problems with it til I came back here. I hope alpha 5 or the final release is coming well! It’s been almost a month now!

Drew at 2009-10-07 00:45:32 -0400

I just sent $10.00 your way. Keep up the good work man!

Devin at 2009-10-08 02:05:04 -0400

I don’t know if this is possible for you to do, since it involves iChatAgent rather than iChat itself, but it would be nice to have the menu bar icon show all contacts, rather than just the contacts for one account.

Sam at 2009-10-08 23:02:05 -0400

Is there any hope of getting facebook chat support (like in adium)?

Kamalesh at 2009-10-12 16:48:29 -0400

Nice work on Chax for SL, Kent. ;) Noticed a use case that may be addressed by your "passive loader" fix, but not sure. When searching for iChat transcripts via Spotlight, it opens pure iChat instead of opening the iChat transcript result through Chax. Hope you can rectify that. You may even consider adding a cool iChat search field in the unified list somehow. That would elegantly remind Chax users that old transcripts with links or file transfer info, are only a few keystrokes away. ;) (Not sure if it would be cooler to add a Search field in the Contact List or maybe even in the Chat window...that may need a prototyping/feedback loop to figure out and finalize.) ;)) Btw, no problems here with video chat via alpha4.

Kamalesh at 2009-10-12 16:57:04 -0400

FYI, Kent, I noticed blog comments aren't accepted when Opera Turbo kicked in on an AUTOMATIC setting here -- since Opera Turbo goes through an Opera proxy for North American users, apparently. http://www.opera.com/browser/turbo/

Josh at 2009-10-14 11:06:27 -0400

First - I love Chax. I have donated in the past, but being a poor postdoc, it hasn't been much. I don't know that my feature request is possible - but overwriting the Address Book photo of contacts with their AIM/Jabber/Bonjour avatar would be nice.

Jeana Lawrencew at 2009-10-14 13:28:47 -0400

Any update on when the next version of Chax 3.0 will be ready?

Larry at 2009-10-14 14:56:23 -0400

Wow, this is like iChat with less suck. Nice. :)

Kamalesh at 2009-10-16 23:17:19 -0400

I noticed a runaway CPU on a cancelled video chat request (v10.6.1). I was away from my MBP and a buddy tried to call on video and cancelled on his end when I didn't answer. When I came back to my Mac, I clicked to close the video request box, but iChat was showing 95% CPU and my fans were going crazy. I quit iChat/Chax and the SystemServerUI went to 85%. Tried to search for issues on this, but after about 2-3 minutes, CPU went to near-idle and normal. So, not sure if this was a Chax alpha issue, but thought I'd post it. ;)

Kamalesh at 2009-10-17 09:22:21 -0400

Hey Kent, under iChat Prefs, I noticed that Chax can be chosen as the default IM app. Would you recommend we change this or leave iChat 5.0 as default...? Thx much.

m5style at 2009-10-19 07:48:30 -0400

Hey I'd like to translate yure program Warp in Korean I already made a translated ver. of Lacalizable.string but.. since I don't know how to send this thing to you, I'll just paste everything here... is it ok? you can just erase this after you read it tho.. ----------------------------------------------------------- "Spaces is disabled" = "Spaces가 비활성화 되어있습니다."; "Spaces must be enabled for Warp to function. Would you like to go to the Spaces preference pane?" = "Warp를 사용하기 위해서는 Spaces를 활성화해야 합니다. 지금 Spaces환경설정으로 이동하시겠습니까?"; "Resource missing" = "필요한 파일이 부족합니다"; "Warp is missing a resource required to function. Please reinstall Warp." = "Warp를 실행하는데 필요한 파일들이 없습니다. Warp를 다시 설치해 주세요."; "Update available" = "새로운 버전이 있습니다"; "Warp %@ is available. Would you like to download the latest version? Version %@ is currently installed." = "Warp의 새 버전(%@)이 나왔습니다. 최신버전을 다운로드 하시겠습니까? 현재 버전은 %@입니다."; "Download" = "다운로드"; "Ignore" = "무시"; "No updates found" = "새로운 업데이트가 없습니다"; "Warp %@ is the newest version available." = "Warp의 현재 버전(%@)이 가장 최신입니다."; "Error checking for updates" = "업데이트 에러"; "Warp was unable to check for updates.\n\n%@" = "Warp의 업데이트를 체크할 수 없습니다.\n\n%@"; "Unable to contact remote host." = "서버에 연결할 수 없습니다."; "Yes" = "네"; "No" = "아뇨"; "No windows" = "No windows"; "Please consider donating" = "기부해 주시면 감사하겠습니다."; ----------------------------------------------------------- I know that your program contains more words than those above. contact me plz :)

m5style at 2009-10-19 07:49:15 -0400

oops.. I mean "your"... not "yure" lol

Andrew at 2009-10-20 22:33:23 -0400

I've just realized there's another bug that appears to be caused by Chax. When editing statuses (by clicking the status dropdown and "Edit Status Menu…", it is not possible to reorder statuses, and after attempting to reorder, the menu's "Okay" and "Cancel" buttons (including using the ESC key) fail, and it is impossible to close the menu without quitting iChat. This problem does not occur when loading just iChat, instead of Chax. (Running Chax 3.0a4 on 10.6.1)

AJ at 2009-10-21 13:36:27 -0400

Like a couple have mentioned before... it's kinda hard to say what needs to be added... but one thing i've noticed since using Chax on Snow Leopard... i would really like to see the option to remove the "chax bandaids" from the menus... i liked it when people would see me use all these great features (Windows users mostly) and they wouldn't be able to tell i had a plugin... now program... not a big deal, but it is a feature i would like to see added again... thanks for your great work on this app... YOU ARE AMAZING!!!

Perry at 2009-10-21 20:06:51 -0400

It still doesn't work with growl for me, and I still have no idea what's blocking the notifications from being sent out. Assistance would be great, haha. Thanks. Perry.

AJ at 2009-10-21 21:07:51 -0400

ok... so i just have to say... i posted a couple of posts before... but D*MN... I LOVE CHAX!!!! i mean i would still ask the removal of the icons... but i've tried the auto accept feature on my home computer (which has leopard) and i've been using my new MacBook Pro... OMG... AMAZING... i am definitely going to try and set aside some money to donate... peeps need to support the really great things... and to be able to access all my files... remotely monitor my room... and screen share... no need for additional software... i can see why everyone likes this feature... KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!! this is an amazing app/feature!!!

Levi Figueira at 2009-10-23 10:22:55 -0400

My biggest gripe with iChat right now, and that Chax doesn't solve (used to, actually) is having an auto-reconnect. It's frustrating to have people mail me saying they couldn't get in touch with me even though I said I would be on iChat... :(

arkulov at 2009-10-25 10:37:49 -0400

Kent, are you alive? When any update or when Chax 3.0final will be ready?

Gurpartap Singh at 2009-10-25 14:31:48 -0400

Can I have the label of the icon in the dock say "iChat" instead of "Chax"? Thanks for everything!

Gurpartap Singh at 2009-10-25 14:34:21 -0400

Ah, let me also emphasize! "Auto reconnect" feature will mean no-regrets in helping for further development of this application. Can you please update on the plans to introduce this feature? It's painful to connect manually each time iChat disconnects due to network connection/wifi issues. Also, iChat takes painful ~10 mins to detect that it's not actually connected to the chat servers. Can you also look into it? Now where do I donate? xD

John Galt at 2009-10-31 02:31:17 -0400

I recently upgraded to Snow Leopard and I am using Chax 3.0a4. When my status is set to "Away" inbound messages no longer come into iChat, they instead go directly to AIM on my iPhone. Under Leopard 10.5 iChat would send the messages to both my computer and my iPhone. How do I get this functionality back? Is there a setting that I am overlooking?

Craig at 2009-11-01 12:41:40 -0500

I recently got a new iMac with Snow Leopard installed. I was happy to see that a version of Chax was available, but upon installing it found that it wouldn't load. I changed iChat to 32-bit mode but no luck. If I run the installer, iChat will open with Chax, but on subsequent starts Chax isn't there. I'm running OS 10.6.1 and Chax alpha 4. Any suggestions?

Martin at 2009-11-02 09:17:56 -0500

It's not an Installer, it's a loader. You always have to start Chax as app which then loads iChat in it.

Craig at 2009-11-02 12:52:05 -0500

Aha....that explains a lot. Thanks, Martin!!!

Pat at 2009-11-03 15:52:20 -0500

I am on the newest beta and am frequently getting an error that my camera is in use by another application. If I shut down iChat (loaded with Chax) and then restart Chax the camera works. Thought you'd want to know. btw- new version coming out soon?

dee (as in doktor) at 2009-11-03 20:39:57 -0500

hey there sir. i had a couple of feature requests ... mentioned it on twitter, you said post here, so hey, here i am. :D i'm using chax on 10.5 with an old g4 powerbook and love it. yer app has saved my bacon a few times with regard to autoaccepting files... can just leave this old beast running and if i take off for a few hours people can still fire files over to me. handy. ok, so here are my feature requests. 1) Setting "Away" STAYS AWAY yes, i know that iChat has this feature in the preferences, but it DOESN'T WERK. i've got it ticked to stay away even if i come back, and if i leave the computer idle for awile (say, for example, 8 hrs, like, when i'm sleeping), come back and thwap the trackpad, it'll happily (and probably gleefully) set me back to "Available", which prompts some people that i don't really wanna talk to right then to suddenly notice i'm available and barrage me with messages. this is crapple's bug i reckon, but i imagine that yer app could actually fix this by offering a real "go away, stay away" option. 2) a super-plain messages theme with no visual fx and no background text colours since i'm on the ppc platform, visual effects in leopard take its toll on the system, speed-wise. so when i have a few things up and running and i'm chatting, the iChat window (even when set to use just "SHow as Compact / Show Names", which is what i use) will constantly try and redraw the colour bars and the like, which is annoying. seems like even if i set it to 'clear' it still shaded and still buggs out and has a hell of a time redrawing. so, it'd be nice to have a message display that was totally plain, ie no text shading, etc. being able to change text colour or buddy name colour for quick differentiation might be good, but hey ... beggars can't be choosers i suppose... and there you have it. thanks for listening, and thanks for possibly entertaining my ideas. cheers. --dee!

arkulov at 2009-11-03 23:42:05 -0500

Kent! Are you alive?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Donavan at 2009-11-04 15:41:59 -0500

Hi I was told chex has an auto-reconnect option if ichat gets knocked off line; however I can't find an option for turning it on. I see in the history notes the feature was implemented, "1.3 (New) Automatically reconnect when disconnected" am I just missing it or was it removed?

Donavan at 2009-11-04 15:49:43 -0500

Reading through blog notes I see others asking for the auto-reconnect feature to be re-added so I assume I'm not missing it and it was removed at one point. For those needing this feature I did find a separate posted fix for an apple script that will do the same thing. Just launch /Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor.app, paste the code below into it and save it as an application. repeat tell application "iChat" if status is offline then log in end if set originalStatus to the status message end tell delay 5 end repeat

Justin D at 2009-11-09 15:38:37 -0500

"When a user’s iTunes status changes it re-sends a ” came online” message to growl, despite them having been available and online the whole time." Seeing this as well - some via status changes, some via iTunes song changes (if they're using that as their status string). Otherwise, it's been solid!

Andrew at 2009-11-09 22:55:47 -0500

It appears that the 10.6.2 update broke the Log Viewer's search. Not 100% that it was caused by the update, but search was definitely working before and now the search box has no apparent effect. Running Chax 3.0a4; 10.6.2 (64-bit kernel); MBP 4,1

David at 2009-11-10 13:49:17 -0500

Since updating to 10.6.2 iChat/Chax has become completely unusable. The program is VERY buggy and won't show buddies, its windows crash, and the whole thing doesn't work. It worked fine prior to today. I have tried uninstalling Chax as well as iChat, to no avail. I assume I am missing some files before reinstalling. Help!

Perry at 2009-11-10 15:31:00 -0500

Yeah, and something's still blocking my notifications. Getting an add-on for it like the old version would be great...

Igor at 2009-11-12 12:19:06 -0500

I think I found a small bug. When I drag contacts between groups to change their groups, nothing happens. Close Chax, open iChat, and it works. Thanks for the great work on Chax! =)

Kamalesh at 2009-11-12 18:38:19 -0500

Chax working fine for me under v10.6.2...but noticing that iChat not respecting Spaces settings. It stays in Space 1...won't accept displaying in every Space.

Nolan at 2009-11-13 01:39:01 -0500

Will tabs be re-added?

Martin at 2009-11-14 12:47:39 -0500

Tabs are integrated in iChat 5 under Snow Leopard. They were there for iChat 4 under Leopard. So no need for Kent to ad them in Chax. ;)

random bob at 2009-11-15 20:58:46 -0500

Possibly a strange feature request. Before Leopard Chax was the only way to have iChat have tabbed chats. looked forward to it being implemented into Leopard, but there was a big drawback: they were not "tearable." I like to keep them together *most of the time,*, but sometimes a particular set of chats need to be separate from one another and I liked being able to drag them apart and make them their own chats again. Is there any possibility of adding this feature to Chax? making tabs removable again, a la pre-Leopard Chax?

Ryan at 2009-11-16 16:53:19 -0500

I really like this new application loader approach. Is there any information you can provide on how it was done or online documentation of such an approach?

Andrea at 2009-11-17 07:00:39 -0500

This is a feature request. Is it possible to start an ichat video recording without a request?

Nikhil at 2009-11-17 12:28:48 -0500

Hey, When I am trying to launch Chax, iChat also gets launched and after that when I set my status as "invisible" on Chax, it still shows "Available" as on iChat I am still "Available". Any way through this problem. P.S. I am not aware whether this has been answered earlier Thanks a lot

Stephen Schwartz at 2009-11-17 15:59:10 -0500

The only issue I am having is that chax won't automatically resize the buddy list window. If I go into preferences and uncheck the box and then recheck it - it will work for a while. Eventually, it stops working and I have to redo the process. Otherwise, great program.

Rick at 2009-11-19 09:04:49 -0500

@ Andrea if you go to chax settings and click the auto accept AV box you can bypass the "Click accept phase." If you are talking like a voice command to start AV chat then I got nothing. Hope this helps.

Brad Ramsey at 2009-11-19 17:43:31 -0500

I love the unified buddy list window, but what about the iChat menu bar? I really would love that to be a unified list of contacts. Another bonus would be to have all the status options in a submenu so I don't have to skip over them to click on a somebody. Anyway, great app, thanks!

Albo at 2009-11-19 22:53:37 -0500

Curious when the next update might happen. A simple thing I miss from Chax in Leopard is the auto hide window ability.

Andrew at 2009-11-20 20:38:35 -0500

Yeah, waiting for the next update here. Chax is really onerous for me to use right now because I can't send messages to people via the iChat menubar icon. I don't like to show buddy lists at all, and just like to do my IMing via that menubar thing.

i at 2009-11-21 17:09:44 -0500

first, i agree with Andrew, above, who'd like to be able to IM people from the menu bar icon. and second, got a buggle: a peculiar quirk of mine is that i've never liked the term "buddies" - i call my friends "friends." as such, i'd like to delete the group called "buddies" from my contact list and just leave the group called "friends" (i guess i created the latter). at any rate, when i right-click the "buddies" group header and choose "delete group...", a confirmation sheet drops down to make sure i want to delete the group and to inform me that if i do i'll permanently delete three contacts. the bug is that this sheet can't be dismissed; neither of the buttons in it does anything. once that sheet appears, the only way for me to get rid of it is to quit and relaunch iChat (or Chax...i'm not really clear on exactly which app is doing what). oh, and here's another one: i just tried to rename the group "recent buddies" to "recent friends" and it didn't work. the renaming sheet came up and let me edit the group name and went away just fine, but when i finished, the group name was unchanged. so right now i guess the only benefit i'm really deriving from Chax is the unified contact list...but that's a nice thing. thanks and please keep up the good work. when i'm sure i'm going to use Chax regularly (only just started using it today) i'll ship a donation!

Dmitry Lex at 2009-11-26 17:26:57 -0500

I will press "donate" button that day i'll see "Properly use ICQ accounts without sending text formatting in messages" feature working in 10.6.2. It's one and only feature i want in Chax... F*ck all other features - concentrate on that one pleeeeeease!

Nadim at 2009-12-01 02:44:20 -0500

Chax is just awesome. I hope we get a polished Snow Leopard release soon!

yiiit at 2009-12-01 12:55:53 -0500

i have the problem, that when starting chax ALWAYS ichat opens too. there's just the chax icon in the dock (looks like ichat-dock) but when i look on my screen, i always see chax & ichat as two seperate apps side by side. thats not that big deal, but why the hell is this happening? killall iChatAgent didnt work. whenn killing the agent, the complete AIM-protocoll crashes.....

Mike M. at 2009-12-02 13:34:21 -0500

Hi, Thanks for a great app. I'm writing to request a feature. Is it possible to allow the "all contacts" window to exclude bonjour contacts? or perhaps allow the contents of it to be user adjustable? Best, Mike

Dom Barnes at 2009-12-02 17:00:18 -0500

I see that an issue with waking from sleep was fixed in this update but I still seem to have this issue. Some accounts seem to sign back in, mainly AIM, but my Google Talk/Jabber accounts don't. Hope this can be fixed. Otherwise, great product!

David at 2009-12-03 21:36:25 -0500

I don't like opening a seprate chax app i liked the old one from leopard. I will press donate once this happens again and a final snow leopard version is here!

Tiago Mergulhão at 2009-12-04 16:54:01 -0500

Your software is so great and with this new "not plug-in" mode it turns to perfect, no installation needed and no changing the iChat itself! I'd really love to know if it is possible to somehow put the ability to connect to other networks such as WLive and Skype on Chax. Thank you for the software again!

Andrew at 2009-12-04 20:18:53 -0500

David, why do you, as a (I assume) end user of iChat, care about something so under-the-hood like how chax integrates with iChat? Let's not waste Kent's time with stuff like that. He's probably busy enough as it is trying to bring functional parity to chax 3.0. Please, no major features (Skype???) until chax achieves functional parity with the thing it's wrapping.

Scott at 2009-12-07 10:35:56 -0500

In addition to what you said Andrew, Kent already mentioned that the change was because of changes in Snow Leopard and the old behaviour may not be possible. This can be seen in many other apps that use plugins also and there are "hacks" to enable that functionality, but not worth it for something so trivial and minor. " I will press donate once this happens again and a final snow leopard version is here!" Kent may never say it but as a developer also I can say this is some what insulting. Not only does it give no appreciate for the current work and time spent already on the project but its insulting that you think this dangling carrot approach will work and get you what you want. If developers had a nickel for every time some user said that but never did. Kent provides this project free. If you are thankful for the current features and feel a donation is appropriate then by all means do it. If you don't and are hoping for future additions, wait until then and donate. If you don't want to donate for any reason, just be thankful he provides it for free. Thanks for all the hard work Kent.

Andrew at 2009-12-07 21:29:34 -0500

I agree wholeheartedly with everything Scott wrote.

Andrew at 2009-12-08 03:32:26 -0500

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I hate Adium, cant stand it at all. I enjoyed using iChat but couldn't deal with the separate buddy lists. Your application has saved me alot of grief! I plan to recommend it to my fiance who just got her new Macbook yesterday. Give me a bit to donate, money is tight right now. I have every intention of doing so though. Its added to my iCal for next month. THANK YOU!!!

Andrew at 2009-12-08 13:28:42 -0500

Can you make it an option for Chax to remember the size/position of an IM window? New ones keep popping up on the top right. Is REALLY irritating. ***EDIT I Google'd this and it seems like a previous version of Chax has this functionality. The older version doesn't work with SL :(. Would be really great to add into the new one!

sekati at 2009-12-11 13:15:45 -0500

I've loved chax for a long time but it's been a nightmare under Snow Leopard regarding lists: most times they wont pop up from the menu bar icon and only occasionally from the Window menu bar item: this makes workflow *really* cumbersome/difficult: please please fix this in the next release ... I don't really like Adium but its beginning to look like my only viable options :(

Albo at 2009-12-11 16:36:31 -0500

3 months without an update or word of an update. I really hope this isn't the end of Chax.

Brian Pontarelli at 2009-12-11 16:50:35 -0500

Yeah, no updates for a bit is troubling. Perhaps it is time to open source Chax and put it on Google Code so that others can help build it out.

7h31ll3g4l at 2009-12-16 14:27:40 -0500

excuse abbandoned project chax? thank's bye

Steve at 2009-12-16 23:55:35 -0500

Actually, for those that think the project is dead, I do not think it is, on his twitter account he posted a tweet 6 days ago in reply to someone with the following asking about when 3.0 would be out, he said: "More will be coming in the upcoming weeks, I hope."

Ryan Hanrahan at 2009-12-17 14:51:23 -0500

Hi, I'm a new mac user (just bought a macbook) and am trying to merge my aim and gchat buddy lists in ichat. I downloaded your software and installed it. It said to relaunch ichat and I quit out of it and relaunched it but I can't see any menu item for Chax in the preferences. Am I doing something wrong here? Thanks for the help, I appreciate it Ryan

Bill at 2009-12-18 10:49:18 -0500

I am on snow leapord and chax 3 alpha 4. My activity log does not populate on my macbook pro but it does on my IMAC. What could be the problem??

Kevin at 2009-12-20 13:19:43 -0500

Installed 3.0a4 on my iMac running SL 10.6.2 but I don't get any Growl notices or Activity log? Any ideas? Running Growl 1.2

Sean at 2009-12-21 16:52:26 -0500

Has anyone tried this with the iGlasses plugin? When I launch iChat through Chax, the iGlasses plugin doesn't load. Loads fine when launching iChat directly. Any ideas?

Sarah at 2009-12-21 20:40:48 -0500

Chax is great - thanks! Just as way of feedback, I can't remove an AIM buddy from my buddy list in Chax even though I added them through Chax. I had to close Chax and open iChat directly, and then I could remove the buddy.