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The Icon Bar: News and features: New all-in-one messaging software from R-Comp
 

New all-in-one messaging software from R-Comp

Posted by Richard Goodwin on 16:53, 15/5/2002 | , , ,
 
Now, it's almost as inevitable as the turning of the seasons that R-Comp will bombard us with emails just before a show, and usually they go into the mixed bag that is the pre-show roundup. However, this time out they seem to have got the right idea - tell us about a completely new cool product and they get a news posting all of their own!

It's called Grapevine, and is basically an all-in-one instant messenger for RISC OS. There's similar clients on other platforms (Trillian springs to mind[1]), but as far as I know this is the first RISC OS all-in-one solution. Currently it seems to support MSN Messenger and IRC, with AOL and Yahoo messaging mentioned in the future support section. The buzz word checklist includes "full support for emoticons... varying display fonts, mapping of Windows fonts to RISC OS equivalents, multi-way conversations, attractive graphical user interface ... designed with first-time users in mind, it also has much for more technical users, such as configurable macros ... 'friends' system allows you to use IRC as an Instant Messaging system just like MSN ... separate Whisper session windows, DDC chat and file transfer, operator controls, lists of channel members and so on."

Because of the amount of development that has gone (and continues to go on) into the product Grapevine is not a freebie like on some platforms, but costs 25 quid (inc. VAT and P&P). But hey, that's not much for a RISC OS product enjoying pretty much full time development.

OK, I'll play nice - other reasons to visit the R-Comp stand include: Artex's strategy game TEK finally seeing the light of day after four years of development (more on that at Acorn Arcade); Webster XL gets another upgrade (with a hefty namecheck for Harry's font site to support Windows fonts); and there's the ADSL in a box and Simtec et al. 10/100bT network cards. Oh, and the WebThumbs thumbnail generator as part of EasyClip2+. OK Andrew? :)

[1] well, it would have if I could have remembered the name. Ta [mentat].
 
  New all-in-one messaging software from R-Comp
  (16:57 15/5/2002)
  Michael Drake (17:23 15/5/2002)
    Richard Goodwin (17:39 15/5/2002)
      MarcoF (18:38 15/5/2002)
        John Hoare (20:37 15/5/2002)
          Matthew Somerville (21:03 15/5/2002)
            [mentat] (00:25 16/5/2002)
              g0tai (09:18 16/5/2002)
                g0tai (09:19 16/5/2002)
                  Alex Macfarlane Smit (09:52 16/5/2002)
                    Richard Goodwin (11:25 16/5/2002)
                      Paul Vigay (11:36 16/5/2002)
                        John Hoare (12:40 16/5/2002)
 
[mentat] Message #91020, posted at 16:57, 15/5/2002
Unregistered user Whoo. Yay. :) Etc. I'll have to go to the stand twice :D

I still miss ICQ... :(
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
Michael Drake Message #91021, posted at 17:23, 15/5/2002, in reply to message #91020
Unregistered user I've found some screen-shots of Grapevine in action here:

http://www.arsvcs.demon.co.uk/r-comp/Grapevine/grapevine.html

Cheers,

Mike
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
Richard Goodwin Message #91022, posted at 17:39, 15/5/2002, in reply to message #91021
Unregistered user Ta. I've added Grapevine and Trillian links.
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
MarcoF Message #91023, posted at 18:38, 15/5/2002, in reply to message #91022
Unregistered user this is just *great* news.. I have trillian on my PC, and it is nice to have one application for all the networks.. and now ROS will have one as well.. very very nice. I hope they can keep up with the changes the networks make though :) (regular changes in protocol to prevent 3rd party clients to access the network)
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
John Hoare Message #91024, posted at 20:37, 15/5/2002, in reply to message #91023
Unregistered user Me happy. :)
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
Matthew Somerville Message #91025, posted at 21:03, 15/5/2002, in reply to message #91024
Unregistered user [mentat], did you not see my post in the forum? ICQ messaging is working for me (not adding people, though); what's not working at your end?
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
[mentat] Message #91026, posted at 00:25, 16/5/2002, in reply to message #91025
Unregistered user Yeah, I saw it. But then forgot. Meet me in 'general'... :)
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
g0tai Message #91027, posted at 09:18, 16/5/2002, in reply to message #91026
Unregistered user This is something I'm considering getting - although, if their website had a 'buy now' button so I could use my credit-card, and then download the software straight away, I would have already bought it, instead of thinking to myself "I wouldn't mind getting that" and doing nothing.
(Yes, yes, I'm lazy at using the phone. but it is *so* much easier to use the credit card method!).

If R-Comp did offer something like a 'Buy & Download now!' system, they could presumably cut out sending the packaging to the end user or have it as an option, (making for a slightly reduced price, or a slightly larger profit margin ;).



  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
g0tai Message #91028, posted at 09:19, 16/5/2002, in reply to message #91027
Unregistered user Richard, you need to strip out blank lines after then end of a message, and double returns ;)




see?


<snip>
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
Alex Macfarlane Smit Message #91029, posted at 09:52, 16/5/2002, in reply to message #91028
Unregistered user Bad g0tai.

For those who are interested, here's a picture of my stopped-at-the-moment development of ICQv8

http://www.archifishal.freeserve.co.uk/screen.gif

Sometime I'll get around to sticking a front-end on it ;)

Alex.
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
Richard Goodwin Message #91030, posted at 11:25, 16/5/2002, in reply to message #91029
Unregistered user Someday this comments thing will do URLs and smileys properly... ;)
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
Paul Vigay Message #91031, posted at 11:36, 16/5/2002, in reply to message #91030
Unregistered user Hmm. Looks good. Might have to part with 25 squid! Mind you, I agree with g0tai in that if there was a 'buy now' option I'd already be 25 squid poorer.
Incidentally, although it does Instant Messages, they don't say if they're going to cope with chat rooms. AOL chat rooms would be cool.
Also, has anyone looked into porting Proteus, especially now that source code is available.
See http://www.indigofield.com/ for more info.
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 
John Hoare Message #91032, posted at 12:40, 16/5/2002, in reply to message #91031
Unregistered user T"he version of Grapevine available at the show this weekend is but a stepping stone in the project - GV is being developed full time (or not far off!) which is a rarity in RISC OS software these days, and this means that we can continue to expand and extend the software, adding additional functionality and protocols such as AOL and Yahoo messaging. Of course, this is dependant upon demand to a degree!"

Only IRC and MSN Messenger at the moment, but it should grow. Yay!
  ^[ Log in to reply ]
 

The Icon Bar: News and features: New all-in-one messaging software from R-Comp