I'm using aMSN since 2008 (and probably will keep using until I can not login with the program) but also have to accept the facts; aMSN has not had significant updates in a long time (the May 2012 were things that already been in the SVN from a while) and in Windows the program is practically a bug after another (especially in the last time and I think that I no need deepen on the matter because in the
Windows subforum are reported most relevant issues).
So looking for a replacement that is multiprotocol (due to Microsoft's decision I had to migrate to Facebook
grudgingly to not become in an asocial definitive), I have been testing Pidgin and I have not come too bad until now because to use a Skype account since the program there is the
Skype4Pidgin (of course, for it to work first must have the Skype open and login there with your username).
Even so there are some things that I miss from aMSN and that Pidgin does not have, such as:
- Status bar in chat windows.
- Minimize all program windows in the system tray (using Alt Gr + Space) and then request you password to restore (what is popularly known as "boss mode/key/button" or similar). Apparently the function that is responsible for this is "BossMode" and is in the gui.tcl file (starting from line 8289).
- Drop down list with all the changes of state of the contacts (has something similar called "System logs" which is accessed from the "Tools" menu but I see it little practical if I only want to know who is connected/disconnected recently, besides that this is not enabled by default).
- Ability to adjust the height of the text box where you write messages to contacts in the chat window (the program only has the option to change the minimum number of lines of textbox from the preferences window in section "Conversations").
- Display extra data about a contact in the info window (something equivalent to the "Other" static box in the properties window of a aMSN contact).
Also, these and other features can be added to the program using plugins so if anyone is interested in replicate them in Pidgin, you can get information
here ("Development Information" section; allow work with C, Perl and Tcl). I know there are other aMSN features/plugins that I'm leaving out of the list, but that is due to already exist as official plugins (Buddy Notes),
third party (
Character Counter) or are characteristics that never use or never caught my attention.
This is a basic log to html conversor:
http://jsfiddle.net/alexandernst/beSjr/I'll keep updating it till there aren't any bugs.
PS: Forgot to describe how it works. Open one of your logs, paste it into the text area and hit the "Convert!" button.
Doing a quick test of your conversor I discovered that not working properly with characters from other languages (such ¿ or ñ from Spanish) but this can be fixed using UTF8 after convert text (maybe
some of these functions can serve you).
Another thing that I noted is that the output text does not preserve the colors of the original log (I know that it seems trivial, but there are times when text highlighting makes it much easier to read). To fix this you can find useful the following code:
import re
simple_colors = {"GRA": "gray","GRE": "green", "NOR": "black", "RED": "red"}
detector = re.compile('(?=\|"LC?(RED|GRA|NOR|GRE|[0-9a-f]{6})(.+))')
matches = detector.findall(logtext) # List containing tuples of the type (color, fragment)
# Order the list to longer fragment are at first and shorter at the end
matches.sort(key=lambda tuple: len(tuple[1]), reverse= True)
for color, fragment in matches:
if simple_colors.has_key(color): html_color = simple_colors[color]
else: html_color = "#" + color
logtext = logtext.replace(fragment, '<span style="color:%s">%s</span>' % (html_color, fragment))
logtext = re.sub('\|"LC?(RED|GRA|NOR|GRE|[0-9a-f]{6})', "", logtext)
Although the code is in Python, should not be too difficult to convert at JQuery but do not know if this framework has something like the
findall function or if it supports
lookahead assertion in regular expressions.
[...]
About the other one, yes, I thought about making an "offline" version, but I need some more time
for that as I need to support all 3 OS (Windows, Linux and Mac).
[...]
I think that would be more practical to make a local viewer for the registers (so can be keep the original logs and there would be no redundant html files generated by a converter) and in theory only would take the "loging.tcl" module (and what it need to work) from aMSN and add a textbox to indicate the path where the program save the logs.
Another option is the Pidgin's "Log Reader" plugin (comes with the program) which can include logs from other IM clients in the program log viewer. Apparently this is compatible with the registers of Adium, MSN Messenger, aMSN, and Trillian but I had no luck when tested it with the account that I use in aMSN, does anyone that has succeeded make it work?
