Summary

The SensibleIRCHandler aims to provide an interface for Gaim that handles irc:// links in Firefox Browser. This will provide the same xchat-gnome functionality to handle irc:// links, but for Gaim.

Rationale

Recent changes in inclusion of packages for future Ubuntu release will not include xchat-gnome because of recursive duplication with Gaim's IRC capabilities, so IRC will be entirely handled in Gaim.

Scope

This will use Gaim as an IRC client, but will not alter the main Gaim configurations, this would create a temporary configurations for the current sessions. A functionality to add the IRC channels defined in InternetRelayChat in Gaim buddy list, will be easy, but will not add them by default. Adding them for a user requires further discussions.

Design

Invocation and Overall Design

A menu entry would not be created. It will be launched only through the browser when irc:// protocol is used. The interface will be simple, that asks the user's nick, and password.

Input Handling

Currently, it handles irc://server:port/channel, but irc://server/channel is not yet implimented. Implimentation is easy with RegularExpressions, the main design is to make port 6667 the default port when no port is supplied, and no channel will be joined if irc://server is only used.

Desktop Integration

Nautilus integration and Evolution mail integration is enabled by default. This would be easy to send files to a user in IRC.

Profile Handling

Preferences and Buddy List will be saved for a particular Nick. Every nick will create a seperate profile for the current session. The seperate profile will be configurable and be used over and over again.

Main Interface

Comprises of non editable text entries for Server, Port and Channel. An input is required for Nick and Password text entry.

Chatting in Gaim

A automatic buddy list of the server and channel will be added.

Source Packages

sensible-irc-handler.tar.gz

Written in GTK+, C and sh script. It does not require other dependencies other than build-essentials and GTK+ 2.0 Libraries. It can be installed by standard configure, make & make install