Copyright
Copyright © 2001 Thomas Canty, Ilya Konstantinov, Trevor Curtis
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by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no
Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. You may obtain a copy
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Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
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This manual describes version 1.4.0 of MY-GNOME-APP. It was
last updated on 4/20/2001.
GnomeICU Manual
About This Document
1. Introduction
GnomeICU is a GNOME
application for connecting to AOL's
ICQ® instant messaging service
or any other ICQ server.
GnomeICU is an alternative to the original
ICQ application by ICQ Inc. and
strives for compatibility with it. Currently, it is based
on the ICQ v5 protocol (following specifications by
Matthew Smith), which is equivalent to the protocol used
in the ICQ99b application.
The ICQ instant messaging service is free for all users.
It allows you to keep in touch with people around the world
via messages which they receive immediately if they're online
(which is somehow similar to the traditional "pager" device).
GnomeICU notifies you when your friends
go online and allows you to communicate with them,
via text messages, chats and by sending files.
To run GnomeICU, select
GnomeICU from the
Internet submenu of the Main
Menu, or type gnomeicu on the
command line. To start GnomeICU without
the panel applet, type gnomeicu -a on the command line.
This document describes version
1.4.0 of GnomeICU.
2. Starting up
This section details the first steps you need to take to use GnomeICU.
Each ICQ user has a Universal Internet Number, or UIN, that is unique to him/her only,
and used to identify him/her in addition to other information, such as nickname and e-mail
address. To communicate with other ICQ users, you need to register and receive an ICQ UIN too.
 | Note |
|---|
This section refers to AOL's official ICQ service. If you intend to use a standalone
ICQ server, e.g. one provided by your company for internal communications,
the procedure may differ.
|
To sign-up to the ICQ service, open the
ICQ and select
(TODO).
TODO
Now you are ready to use all features of ICQ.
To learn how to use them, read the next sections.
3.1. Glossary
Contact List
In the Main window, you see a list of people
(or "contacts") which is called a "Contact List". Those are usually
people you know and wish to remain in contact with (also called 'buddy
list' in similar instant messaging applications).
Status
When a user is not connected to ICQ, his/her status is Offline.
When a user is connected to ICQ, his/her status is one of the following:
Online
(which means you may contact the user),
Free For Chat,
Away
(which means the user is currently away from the computer),
Not Available
(which means the user is about to be away from the computer for a long time),
Occupied,
Do Not Disturb
and Invisible.
The icons besides each name show the person's status.
The Contact List contains an Online tab, which
contains only online contacts, an Offline tab which
contains only offline contacts and an optional Not In List
tab, which contains users which sent you messages and are not in your contact list.
Invisible user
By setting your status to Invisible, others would not know you went online
until you send them an event (e.g. a message, a chat request etc.).
If you see a user with an Invisible status, that means the other user
in Invisible mode and either has contacted you or has you in his/her
Visible List.
3.2. Performing ICQ operations
 | Performing ICQ operations with the keyboard only |
|---|
You can perform most ICQ operations with the keyboard by selecting
a contact from the list with the Up and Down
buttons, and then pressing Alt+Space
to open the popup menu and selecting a menu item with the Up and
Down keys.
|
3.3. The Panel Applet
GnomeICU comes with a panel applet, shown in
. This panel applet shows your current status
and the number of users currently online in your contact list.
Clicking this panel applet brings up the main window if it is hidden,
or hides if it is visible.
When a message is received, the panel applet's icon changes from the regular
status icon to an icon representing the type of message received
(see ). The number besides it now
shows how many messages are unread.
3.4. Menus
The menu bar, located at the top of the Main
Window, contains the following menus:
- ICQ
This menu contains:
Add Contact
this command brings up the Add Contact dialog, which
allows a user to add a contact to their contact list.
Connection History
this command brings up the Connection History dialog,
showing a list of network transactions which occured during the ICQ session. It is not the regular Message History
and contains information which is not useful to the average user.
Preferences...
this command brings up the Preferences dialog,
which allows you to configure GnomeICU.
Change User Info
this command brings up the User Information dialog,
which allows you to add and change your personal information in the ICQ user directory.
Hide Main Window
this command hides the main window. Clicking the
panel applet brings the main window back again.
Exit
this command exits the program and removes the GnomeICU
applet from the GNOME panel.
- Lists
This menu contains:
Ignore List
this command brings up the ignore list dialog, which
allows users to add contacts to their ignore list.
Visible List
this command brings up the visible list dialog, which
allows users to add contacts to their visible list.
Invisible List
this command brings up the invisible list dialog, which
allows users to add contacts to their invisible list.
Online Notify List
this command brings up the online notify list dialog, which
allows users to add contacts to their online notify list.
- Help
This menu contains:
GnomeICU Documentation
shows this manual.
About
shows general information about
GnomeICU, such as
the authors' names and the application version number.
4.1. Sending a Message
To send a message over ICQ, either double-click on a contact or right-click on a contact and select Message....
The Send Message dialog shown in
appears. Type a message and click the Send
button to send the message.
| Tip |
|---|
You can press Ctrl+Enter to quickly send the message.
This accelerator key triggers Send in all GnomeICU dialogs.
|
4.2. Sending a File
To send a file over ICQ, right-click on a contact and select
File Request.... The Send File dialog
shown in appears. Add Files...
to add each file you wish to send to the list.
To remove files from the list, select the files you do not wish to send
and click on Remove files.
Finally, if necessary, enter a reason for sending the file.
Click the Send button to send the files.
The files are sent in the order of their appearance in the list,
and the File Transfer dialog box displays
the progress of the transfer.
4.3. Sending a URL
You can use this functionality to send an URL (Universal Resource Locator - another name
for a web site address) to other users. It's the preferred way of sending URLs,
since the receiving user could easily see the URL in one click (in most ICQ applications).
To send a URL over ICQ, right-click on a contact and select URL....
The Send URL dialog shown in
appears. Type in or paste the URL, and if necessary add a description. Click
the Send button to send the URL.
| Dragging a Link |
|---|
You can drag a link from your web browser to the contact in the GnomeICU
to open a Send URL dialog with the URL of the link already typed in.
|
4.4. Chatting
To chat with someone on your ICQ list, right-click on a contact and select
Chat Request. The Chat
Request dialog, shown in appears.
Type a reason for the chat and press the Send button
to send the chat request. If the other user accepts the chat, the
Chat dialog, shown in appears.
Otherwise, their reason for not accepting the chat request would appear.
5. Adding a Contact
To add a contact to your contact list, select
Add Contact from the
ICQ menu. The
Add A Contact druid, shown in appears.
To add a contact, enter information about the user in at least one field
(e.g. the UIN). After entering this information, click the
Next button. A list of all the contacts which fit
your search criteria are shown. Select the contact which you want to add
to your list. Click the Next button to add the
contact to your list.
| Narrowing Down Your Search |
|---|
The best way to locate an ICQ user is by his/her UIN. The UIN is unique
and is guaranteed to return only one search result.
Alternatively, you may use the Contact Info tab
and give as much details as you know to narrow down the search
(it is likely you'll get many results for common names).
|
6. Customizing GnomeICU
To access the Preferences dialog, select
Preferences... from the
ICQ menu. The
Preferences dialog, shown in appears.
The properties in the Interface tab are:
Colors
This section allows you to change the colors
used in the contact list for users in different states.
Enable sounds
This allows you to enable and disable sounds.
| Customizing sounds |
|---|
To change the default sounds and configure different sounds for different
events, use the GNOME Control Center's
Multimedia -> Sound applet.
|
Enable sounds only when online
This allows you to disable sounds notification when not in Online status (e.g. Occupied status),
to prevent them from disturbing you or others when you're not available to receive messages.
Enable beeps
This makes GnomeICU produce short beeps from the built-in
speaker of your computer. This might be useful on computers without a real sound device.
Show Main Window on Startup
This makes the main window display when GnomeICU start.
Automatically Show Entire Reply Dialog
When a new message is received, this will make the incoming message window
contain the reply text box right away, without having to click Reply.
Automatically Popup Message Windows
This makes incoming message windows appear and take focus right when the message
is received. Otherwise, the message window will only popup when you click the blinking
icon in the panel applet or in the contact list.
Online Notify Includes Returning from Away and Not Available
This makes GnomeICU notify you when contacts in
your Notify List return from Away and Not Available status (besides
the regular behavior of notifying you when the contact goes Online from Offline
status).
Hide tool-tips
Hides the tool-tips which you receive by moving your mouse cursor over the panel applet for few seconds.
The properties in the Networking tab are:
Russian Win1251<->Koi8-r translation
This allows you to communicate with ICQ users on Microsoft Windows platforms
in Cyrillic languages. This makes GnomeICU convert
incoming messages from Win1251 encoding (also known as 'cp1251',
the standard encoding in Microsoft Windows) to Koi8-R
(a popular encoding in UNIX) and vice versa for outgoing messages.
 | Do not use this feature if communicating in other languages |
|---|
This feature is likely to interfere with other languages encodings
and place wrong letters in both incoming and outgoing messages.
Use only for Cyrillic (Russian).
|
Kanji EUC<->SJIS translation
This makes GnomeICU convert between
different Japanese encodings.
Dump UDP packets
This dumps contents of all incoming and outgoing UDP packets to standard output (stdout).
This option is intended for developers and has no use to regular users.
Dump TCP packets
This dumps contents of all incoming and outgoing TCP packets to standard output (stdout).
This option is intended for developers and has no use to regular users.
Server
This allows you to configure which ICQ server you wish
GnomeICU to use.
| Warning |
|---|
For the Server and Port settings, the default should be correct for most users.
Changing those settings might cause GnomeICU to be unable to connect to the ICQ service.
|
TCP Port Range
This allows you to specify the TCP port range you want
GnomeICU to listen to for incoming
connections. This is necessary for peer-to-peer messages (instant
messages which are not "sent through server"), chats and file transfers.
The default should be fine for most users.
The properties in the External Programs tab are:
- Run Program On Event
This allows you to run an external program upon receiving various events,
such as receiving a message.
The properties in the Away Messages tab are:
Away Message 1..10
This allows you to prepare "Away Messages for later use.
When you change status from 'Online' to 'Away', 'Not Available',
'Occupied' or 'Do Not Disturb', GnomeICU
asks you for a small note to be displayed for users trying to send you messages.
You could then enter a new message or use one of those 10 predefined ones.
Auto away time out is...
This allows you to define how many minutes of inactivity (not using the input
devices, e.g. mouse or keyboard) it takes before GnomeICU
switches status to Away.
Auto Not Available time out is...
Similar to the previous option, but switches status to Not Available
(and hints other users that you walked away for more than a cup of coffee and might not be available
in the near time).
The properties in the Miscellaneous tab are:
Allow others to see me on websites
This allows or disallows other people to see your details on the ICQ website.
Automatically hide main window after...
This allows you to hide the main window after a specified number of seconds.
User Information
Basic user information can be changed in this section.
Click on the Apply button to apply the changes
without closing the dialog. Click on the OK
button to apply the changes and close the dialog. Click the Cancel
button to close the dialog without applying the changes you have made.
7. User Information
To change your details in the ICQ user directory, select
Change User Info from the
ICQ menu. The
User Information dialog, shown in appears
This dialog allows you to tell other users more about yourself.
Keep in mind those personal details are publicly available from the ICQ user directory,
and therefore anyone could read them prior to contacting you.
The properties in the General tab are:
UIN
Displays the user's UIN. Not editable.
| Note |
|---|
To login as another user with a different UIN, see the Miscellaneous tab
in the Preferences dialog (see Customizing GnomeICU).
|
Nick
This field allows you to change your nickname on ICQ.
F. Name
This field allows you to specify your first name.
L. Name
This field allows you to specify your last name.
Sex
This field allows you to specify your gender.
Age
This field allows you to specify your age.
Require Auth
This checkbox allows you to decide
whether other people need your authorization to add you to their ICQ contact lists.
| Note |
|---|
The demand of authorization depends on the ICQ client the other person uses.
Some clients don't implement the feature and can add users regardless of 'Require Auth'.
|
Birthday
This field allows you to specify your birth date.
The properties in the Internet tab are:
IP
Displays the user's IP address. Not editable.
Port
Displays the TCP port being used. Not editable.
Email, Other Email, Old Email:
This field allows you to enter various e-mail addresses you have.
Hide Email
This checkbox specifies whether the e-mail addresses are visible to other people.
The Location tab allows you to edit various details relating
to your location, such as your phone number, country and timezone.
The properties in the About tab are:
Click on the Apply button to apply the changes
without closing the dialog. Click on the OK
button to apply the changes and close the dialog. Click the Cancel
button to close the dialog without applying the changes
you have made.
8. Known Bugs and Limitations
No multi-party chat. You cannot participate in chats with more than two users.
File transfer is buggy.
Impossible to change "Work" details in the user information.
Impossible to view another user's birthday details.
Cannot send files/chat requests when behind a NAT (many users who are behind a "firewall").
10. License
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
A copy of the GNU General Public License is
included as an appendix to the GNOME Users
Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the
GNU General Public License from the Free
Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to
Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA