Adium 2.0!! Err, I mean "Adium X 0.50"

This ain't your daddy's Adium.

Back before iChat was released, I routinely switched between Adium and Fire for my chatting needs. I couldn't stand AIM's interface; so, just about anything else would do, even if it was feature-starved. Adium and Fire were both pretty weak clients back then. Fire has since added file transfer, buddy icon support, and other goodies. Adium went seemingly untouched for a long time.

I still loved Adium 1.x's clean, minimalist interface, but with iChat's arrival, I had grown too dependent on the "oscar" feature set: file transfers, proper away message checking, etc. iChat's video and audio conferencing was a fantastic new set of features too, but I rarely use it and can easily live without it (or just fire up iChat when necesary). Meanwhile, Fire had added these features (minus the AV), but its interface had grown even uglier (of course, it wasn't quite a beauty queen to begin with).

Enter Adium 2.0.

Some time ago, development on a new Adium revved back up. Adam Iser began working on an all-new plug-in driven code base for Adium and promised new features that would match the other chat clients and make Adium much more expandable. Months passed as new developers jumped into the Adium project. Features were gradually added in and the Adium developers started looking at Gaim as a way to develop the protocols quicker.

Fast forward many more weeks and builds later. Gaim hit a milestone at version 0.76 and developers were pouring its features into Adium. Now a multiple-protocol app, Adium supports AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber, MSN, Napster, Trepia, and Yahoo. File transfer is implemented and works well (but there's no GUI indication of transfer success/failure/progress yet -- it just sends).

On top of the new protocol support, developers have totally rewritten the interface. It maintains Adium 1.x's simplicity, but it adds features and customization galore. It has themable buddy lists...



New Mac OS X-friendly preferences with new options for sound sets, emoticon sets, and icon sets (all of which are double-clickable bundles)...







and an awesome new WebCore-based chat view...



That's my own message view I've been tinkering with. There are plenty more that other people have designed...



It is ready? Alpha? Beta? Adam Iser decided that "Adium 2.0" sounded too official, too complete to post for download anywhere. So, the developers decided to do a temporary rename to "Adium X 0.50" and increment the number with weekly builds. This less-than-1.0 title does a better job of conveying Adium's actual status. Something to keep in mind is that Adium X is a whole new app under the hood. It's not an incremental update to Adium 1.6.2. On top of that, it's still under a state of heavy flux.

Things *will* break and features will come and go in the coming weeks and months. The developers label Adium X in an "alpha" state. It should be treated as such and you shouldn't expect it to to everything properly just yet.

That said, I'm using it full-time now and have been for a couple of weeks. The update to the new Gaim core with proper file-transfer sealed the deal for me.

How is it? For me, Adium X works beautifully. It'll hang or crash occasionally every couple of days, but otherwise it's as stable as iChat and many other titles I use regularly. I am very happy to see Adium progress as it has.

My 2 cents.

Your thoughts? You can get information and download from Adium X's home page, adiumx.com.

Note: I am not the same Brad Smith as that name-stealing "Brad Smith" on the Adium forums.

[ast3r3x]

So when do you post your themes and make AI's emoticons into an Adium set or whatever it has to be.

[Nebagakid]

Dude, I would love to use it, and have, but today, when I tried to open it, Adium crashed while trying to connect, and then the Crash Logger crashed. I have deleted preferences and reinstalled twice.


Thus, I have not tried .51, but how is theme handling going to work in later versions, because in .5 it did not seem very user friendly, and it seemed like something a dim-wit could do.

Does it have Rendezvous support? I know it has Address Book support, which is great. The standard emoticons are not super.

I wonder if it would be possible that people have their own user set themes, so that when you talk to them, you get their theme, and vice versa. Like, if I was talking to some dude who loved golf, I would be looking at his golf set theme. That would have to be a custom setting, because it would just confuse some users.

[kim kap sol]

Adium might have been released prematurely to steal Proteus' thunder. But Proteus looks to be the more stable and final release.

As much as I like Adium, it's not ready for public consumption. That said, if you love Adium, you might love Proteus. But they cater to different crowds.

[ast3r3x]

How do you make your own themes? I haven't read anything yet, or looked too hard, but I didn't see anything sticking out at me on how to do it. Is it easy?

Originally posted by kim kap sol
That said, if you love Adium, you might love Proteus. But they cater to different crowds.

True, but since I'm never going to pay for Proteus, I'll gladly take the free and open source Adium any day.

Originally posted by ast3r3x
How do you make your own themes? I haven't read anything yet, or looked too hard, but I didn't see anything sticking out at me on how to do it. Is it easy?

If you know CSS and HTML, it's pretty easy once you figure out how the files go together. Since the WebCore viewer is still under heavy development (and because there are no visible options for it yet), it's not the default view. To switch it on, Get Info on Adium in the Finder and uncheck the box for "Standard Message View.AdiumPlugin" and relaunch Adium. You'll now be using the "Smooth Operator" theme.

Changing the WebCore theme is still quite rough at the moment. You have to edit the actual plugin in the Adium bundle and you have to relaunch Adium for changes to take effect.

The path to the files it uses is:
Adium.app/Contents/PlugIns/Webkit Message View.AdiumPlugin/Contents/Resources

There's no real documentation yet for redoing the WebCore view because, as I mentioned before, it's going to be changing a lot in the near future. Support for user-selectable background colors (among other things) are on the to-do list and will require modifications to any existing themes. If you just peek through the files, though, I don't think it's too difficult to figure it out.

[kim kap sol]

Originally posted by Brad
True, but since I'm never going to pay for Proteus, I'll gladly take the free and open source Adium any day.

On the other hand...if Proteus proves to be the better software, I'll gladly pay for Proteus and support a student programmer.

[ast3r3x]

I'll have to learn CSS, but I like it a lot.

I'll need to make a sound file with no sound though, as I only like sounds to tell me I got an IM from someone the first time. I also like that the buddy list tells you if they are typing or whatever...perhaps it shows I haven't used it forever?

Originally posted by ast3r3x
I'll have to learn CSS, but I like it a lot.

Well, you don't have to use CSS. You could hard-code some tables and FONT tags in there, but you don't have as much flexibility that way.

I'll need to make a sound file with no sound though, as I only like sounds to tell me I got an IM from someone the first time.

Easy fix:

Preferences: Sound: Sound Set: Custom.

Now, simply select and delete any events you don't want to hear.

[Nebagakid]

will someone tell me why ADIUM X keeps on crashing when it tries to connectionation?

[ast3r3x]

Any way you can tell me how to stop the dock icon from showing people who are signing on and off?

[Nebagakid]

Originally posted by ast3r3x
Any way you can tell me how to stop the dock icon from showing people who are signing on and off?

masking tape?

naw, I bet there is a preference, just dig through the preference panels.

[ast3r3x]

I have the custom thing set up, but it still does whatever.

Originally posted by Nebagakid
will someone tell me why ADIUM X keeps on crashing when it tries to connectionation?

The people at the Adium forum would probably be better suited to answer that question. Alternatively, you could post a new thread here about it so this one doesn't get derailed into a discussion of a technical support issue.

I'm no real expert, but here are some ideas: Are you using Mac OS X 10.3? There are some bugs with the implementation when running on 10.2. Are you behind a firewall or proxy? Gaim (and thus Adium) doesn't support proxies. Try disabling any firewalls. Have you deleted all of your preferences? This includes ~/Library/Application Support/Adium 2.0/, ~/Library/Preferences/com.adiumX.adiumX.plist, and ~/Library/Caches/Adium/.

[Nebagakid]

Originally posted by ast3r3x
I have the custom thing set up, but it still does whatever.

then, i bet it is a bug... it is not at 1.0 yet, although somehow at X.

But, does X represent a variable, or doe sit represent 10. Like X could be the every man, the unknown......

Originally posted by ast3r3x
Any way you can tell me how to stop the dock icon from showing people who are signing on and off?

Works for me:

Preferences: Dock: Sow Contacts: uncheck Who connects and disconnects

[Nebagakid]

Originally posted by Brad
The people at the Adium forum would probably be better suited to answer that question. Alternatively, you could post a new thread here about it so this one doesn't get derailed into a discussion of a technical support issue.

I'm no real expert, but here are some ideas: Are you using Mac OS X 10.3? There are some bugs with the implementation when running on 10.2. Are you behind a firewall or proxy? Gaim (and thus Adium) doesn't support proxies. Try disabling any firewalls. Have you deleted all of your preferences? This includes ~/Library/Application Support/Adium 2.0/, ~/Library/Preferences/com.adiumX.adiumX.plist, and ~/Library/Caches/Adium/.

Not to fill this place with junk, but I am not behind a firewall or proxy, and I am on Panfther, i have deleted all those files and folders, twice. It worked fine yesterday, but not today...

[kim kap sol]

Originally posted by Nebagakid
Not to fill this place with junk, but I am not behind a firewall or proxy, and I am on Panfther, i have deleted all those files and folders, twice. It worked fine yesterday, but not today...

Please stop using so much. It's losing meaning because of you.

[Nebagakid]

sorry, I guess I should rotate... maybe...

[ast3r3x]

Originally posted by kim kap sol
Please stop using so much. It's losing meaning because of you.

He has 2203 posts, and it's likely that over 2000 of them have that face in...NOW is not the time to tell him to stop using that face, that time has come and gone, and that face is no longer the smokey face, but a symbol of him. It makes you feel better if you print out pages of them, rip one off the page, throw it in the toilet, and try to piss on it while your going

[Nebagakid]

The only way I can pee on me is by using a pipe. It is my "tag."

For Adium, one thing I don't like is that there is no border on the Buddy List window, which I have gotten used to on the iChat, the fatness of the window... also,where do i set buddy icon?

[Chucker]

Originally posted by Nebagakid
For Adium, one thing I don't like is that there is no border on the Buddy List window, which I have gotten used to on the iChat, the fatness of the window... also,where do i set buddy icon?

In your Address Book.

[ast3r3x]

I'd like to be able to put the buddy list in the lower corner of my screen and then it extend up instead of down, but it's not that smart. Wish they'd fix that.

[alcimedes]

well, no ICQ=no deal for me. although fire is anemic in a lot of areas, at least it connects to the protocols people i talk to use.

[Luca]

alcimedes, I'm not at my computer so I'm not entirely sure if this will work, but I believe when you create a new account, one of the options is "AIM/ICQ" or something along those lines. Since ICQ and AIM seem to work together pretty well, maybe you can actually use your ICQ number when creating a new AIM account.

Yes, the AIM network supports ICQ; so, I would suggest trying the AIM/ICQ account option.

I've never used ICQ. So, I'd like to see if this works for you, alcimedes.

[alcimedes]

hmm, sounds like a plan, i'll give it a try, let you know how it works out.

[BDONN]

ICQ options works great.

[Luca]

Last night I registered an ICQ number and added the one person I know who uses the service to my buddy list. Worked fine.

I am wondering - are they planning to add some sort of message or progress dialog for file transfers? I have sent a few files, and it's awesome that Adium can now do that, but it would be nice to have some sort of confirmation. Even just a message saying "Your file was sent" so I know it was.

File transfer is literally brand new. It's just over a week old and the bare bones are just in place for interfacing with Gaim's file transfer code. Getting a real GUI hooked up for it is on the to-do list.

Since Adium is open source, one of the reasons (I suspect) for publicizing the 0.50+ builds is to rally a little more developer support. Previously, you would only find these new 2.0 builds if you actively went looking for a new version of Adium because Adam had specifically not wanted the underdeveloped versions to be floating around sites like MacUpdate and VersionTracker, giving Adium a bad name.

So, if anyone out there wants to get their feet wet with a little Cocoa programming, snag the CVS and poke around in the code. Several of the Adium developers got their first start with Cocoa by tinkering with Adium's source. Adam and the gang would gladly accept any new submissions to squash bugs or add features like this that people would expect.

[alcimedes]

icq worked like a charm. (that's where all the real tech folks are anyway).

two things. where do i get hte domo-kun icon for adium, and where's the strong bad chat window option?

good stuff.

[Aquatic]

Do either Adium or Proteus have the same amount of compatibility (or more!) of AIM X? Mac AIM itself is pretty crappy with compatibility and with each "update" it gets buggier. For example it frequently hangs on quit, hangs out of the blue, or two weird issues I've seen: 1) takes a while to get Info. 2) rarer: the mouse button "hangs". Only on my external mouse, when I hit the trackpad it unclicks. Anyhow I had never even considered Adium before because I file transfer every day. Thanks for the input.

Originally posted by Aquatic
Do either Adium or Proteus have the same amount of compatibility (or more!) of AIM X? Mac AIM itself is pretty crappy with compatibility and with each "update" it gets buggier. For example it frequently hangs on quit, hangs out of the blue, or two weird issues I've seen: 1) takes a while to get Info. 2) rarer: the mouse button "hangs".

Ugh, people actually still use that piece of trash program? I've never seen those problems with Adium. User info always pops up instantaneously as I scrub over my contact list (it appears in a tooltip).

I don't know about Proteus 4's features. It's supposed to be released this week. Someone else can make a thread about Proteus if wanted.

Here's a quick rundown of Adium's features (mostly from just skimming over the preferences). I've italicized the features that AIM does not offer and put in bold the features that are basically the same as AIM's.

• multiple simultaneous accounts in AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber, MSN, Napster, Trepia, and Yahoo
• contact list combines duplicate entries from using multiple accounts
• when using multiple accounts, can select which account to send from when opening a new chat window
• address book integration for contact list aliases and icons
• built-in spell checking and access to other services (like any true cocoa app)
• contact info window (shows status, profile,and icon)
• contact list tooltip also shows current away message and icon
• customizable contact list appearance: background transparency, contact list font, font colors for each status, label color for each status, label gradient, label transparency, label outline, label around name only or entire width, borderless mode, no-shadow mode, horizontal and vertical auto-resizing, contact spacing, optional idle time, idle time color, optional status icon
• custom contact list sorting
• group contacts counter optonal
• option to keep contact list window on top
• saved theme files for appearance customizations
• sound sets
• dock icon sets
• customizable mix-and-match emoticon sets
• draggable tabbed chat windows (can be rearranged or dragged off to new window)
• account profile
• contact alerts
• event bezel (pops up like the system's volume, eject, and brightness bezels)
• saved away messages
• custom idle time
• set away message after specified idle time
• idle message
• speak messages and names
• message logging and built-in log viewer with live search field
• sending and receiving of files (but no progress indicator yet)
• receiving of inline images (but no sending yet)
• system statistics and iTunes info scripts (inserts things like uptime and current song)
• customizable (optional and replaceable) WebCore message view

What does AIM offer that Adium doesn't?

• stock ticker
• news ticker
• e-mail notification
• advertisements
• folder file sharing
• log encryption
• proxy server support
• sending inline images
• file transfer status indication
• insert text as hyperlink
• a huge text input block (Adium's grows and shrinks dynamically like iChat's)
• import/export settings
• contact notes (but is almost complete and to be added "RSN")

That's all I can think of right now. I'm tired and I've got other work to do. Download it and give it a try. It's free; so, you've got nothing to lose.

[Nebagakid]

Brad, you seem to be very into this program, did you have any role in the development?

Originally posted by alcimedes
where do i get hte domo-kun icon for adium, and where's the strong bad chat window option?

Here (scroll down a bit) and here, respectively.

[ericj551]

edit: sorry, redundant post...

I like the strongbad email theme, where can I get it?

[Aquatic]

OK I just tried Adium out. Niiice.

[Noleli2]

I've been using Adium 2 (X, whatever) for about four months now as my full time client and I love it. Highly recommended.

[paularms]

hey everyone...

i made the strongbad messageview. glad people seem to like it... you can download it here.

[Nebagakid]

Originally posted by paularms
hey everyone...

i made the strongbad messageview. glad people seem to like it... you can download it here.

good jeeeeeaaarrrrrrb