Polari

Contents

Polari

Introduction

Internet chat (IRC) client for GNOME

Designers

Objectives

Talk in chat rooms
Save history
Clearly identify "mentions"
Allow easy access to history
Remember last used rooms
Offer sensible list of networks
Detect links posted in the room and display them
Support saving or sending transcripts
Native GNOME 3 notifications
Integrated pastebin support
Integrated bugzilla support
File transfers
Support for 20+ rooms and private chats
Contacts integration (display servers, nicks and availability in GNOME Contacts)?

Constraints

Relevant Art

X-Chat GNOME

X-Chat

Colloquy

Textual

Mibbit

IRC Cloud

Discussion

Tentative Design

Search design page

Comments

For me, the biggest UX bug with IRC is that it doesn't handle interruptions. You can't suspend your machine and see what was said while you were gone; ditto for interruptions to your Internet connection. This is something that a web-based approach like IRCCloud could solve, but I've never had much success with that particular implementation. An alternative would be to replace IRC with a different protocol/server. --AllanDay

There are two other existing solutions to this issue: bouncers and Apps/Smuxi. The bouncer approach is the most elegant as it remains compatible with standard IRC protocol and doesn't involve reinventing the wheel. --AlexandreFranke With regards to the comment from AllanDay, also see TapChat. It requires a node.js application on a server to work, so it's not really feasible for most users.

Why stop at IRC? We could make this a client for group chat and support other protocols such as XMPP, just as Empathy/Chat supports any protocol implemented in Telepathy. We could even use Telepathy. --AlexandreFranke

Smuxi exactly does that (even before telepathy existed) and provides a simple group chat for IRC, XMPP, Twitter, Campfire, SignalR JabbR already. --MircoBauer

Agreed, this should support all kind of name rooms (IRC, XMPP MUCS, etc) and use Telepathy. --GuillaumeDesmottes

It would be crucial how Empathy and this app coexist together, how they complement/overlap. How about Empathy becomes Chat designed just for 1:1 communication and this Group Chat designed for groupies? --OndrejPelech

It would be nice to see SASL support added also. --PaulMunro