Gabber | ||
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Since the first instant messaging client, there have been numerous ways to send and receive messages with other users. Two distinct interfaces have been developed for one-on-one communication, and nearly all commercial and open source clients now adhere to these two "standards." For group communication, a style similar to GUI IRC chat has developed.
The most common format is modeled after Mirabilis ICQ's send and receive dialogs. This format is similar to email messages in that the entire converstation is not contained (or shown) within a window, but only the current message.
To send a normal message to a user in Gabber, right click on a user in the roster and select Message. A Send Message dialog appears (shown in Figure 16) for the user to type a message.
When a normal message is received, a new window will be created to contain the received message and a text entry box for the user to input a response. If more messages are received from the same person, the Read Next button will become active to allow the user to view the next received message. To turn display of received messages off, simply toggle the Received Message button on the message toolbar. After typing a message into the Reply to: entry box, simply click Send to send the message. If the Don't close this dialog button on the toolbar is toggled, the message will be sent and the message entry dialog box will be cleared for a new message. If the option is not toggled, the dialog will then close and any unviewed messages will be lost.
Gabber provides several options when sending a normal message. These options are available via the simple toolbar at the top of each normal message. The following options are available (some options are only available when responding to a message):
Quote Received Message in Reply - Copies the received message into the send message text box for editing.
Send as One-on-One Chat - Specifies that upon receiving a response from the receiver, Gabber should load the rest of the conversation in a One-on-One chat.
Don't close this dialog - After sending the current message, Gabber will clear the text and allow for a new message to be entered from the same dialog.
Show/Hide Advanced Options - Toggles viewing of more advanced options.
Show/Hide Received Message - Toggles viewing of received message.
Add this User to Roster - Loads the Add User dialog to add the current user to the roster.
Edit User Information - Loads the Edit User Information and queries the server for this user's information.
This User's Message History - Loads the history dialog with the complete message history of this user.
Another popular format for sending and receiving messages is styled after America Online's Instant Messenger. One window is loaded with the entire conversation contained in the window. The window contains one main area for the conversation, different options for sending a message may be shown and a small input line for entering the messages is at the bottom of the window. Each message is prepended with the author's user name in brackets (<>).
To start a one-one-one chat with a user in the roster, right click on their name and select One-on-One Chat. Once the One-on-One window is loaded, simply type a message in the lower entry box and press Enter. Messages that the user sends will be prepended with the user name and messages from the other user will be prepended with their nickname.
Like normal messages, one-on-one chats have several options available from a toolbar along the top of the chat window. The following options are available:
Save Conversation to a File - Allows saving the conversation to a special location. Note that the entire conversation and all previous conversations are always logged on disk by default.
Clear Conversation - Clears the buffer of the conversation so the chat window is clean of any previous conversation.
Add this User to Roster - Loads the Add User dialog to add the current user to the roster.
Edit User Information - Loads the Edit User Information and queries the server for this user's information.
This User's Message History - Loads the history dialog to view the entire history of messages with this user.
Close Dialog - Closes the current conversation.
Upon initiating Group Chat from the User, the Join Group Chat dialog (shown in Figure 19) will load for the user to fill in the required group chat information. After entering the desired handle (nick name) and room, select or enter the server address (must be a FQDN -- Fully Qualified Domain Name), simply click OK to connect.
After logging into group chat, the main Group Chat window is shown (see Figure 20). Along the top is the toolbar with various commands to manipulate the group chat. In the center of the window, there are two text areas. The left text box is the main chat area where all the messages are passed back and forth among the chat members. To the right of that area is the list of current participants in the chat and their current status. To change the status of the user in the group chat session, simply select the desired state from the drop down box beneath the list of group chat participants. On the bottom left is an input text box where the user can type messages. After pressing Enter, the message will be sent to all the participants and will appear in the main chat box.
Save Conversation to a File - Allows saving the conversation to a special location. Note that the entire conversation and all previous conversations are always logged on disk by default.
Clear Conversation - Clears the buffer of the conversation so the chat window is clean of any previous conversation.
Show/Hide Users in Group - Allows the side panel of group chat participants to be toggled on and off.
This Group's Message History - Loads the history dialog to view the entire history of messages with this group.
Close Dialog - Closes the current conversation and exits from the group chat.
To change the subject (or topic) of the current group, simply type or edit the subject in the Subject: text box and press the Enter key.
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