KMess 2.0 beta 2 is out!
Hi, yesterday we’ve released our second beta of our next-gen Live Messenger client for KDE!
We’ve as usual put a lot of effort on it, and I invite everyone who uses MSN more than other IM protocols to give it a shot!
As a sample of the countless improved things in this version, here’s a little list of changes:
- fixed disconnections after many hours of use.
- fixed losing KDE Wallet passwords.
- fixed typing notifications not appearing in WLM 2009.
- fixed resending messages already sent as offline messages.
- fixed searching for offline contacts.
- fixed time of arrival of offline messages.
- fixed contact list group sorting.
- fixed many memory leaks.
- improved the Chat History dialog and its integration with KMess.
- improved drag and drop support in contact list.
- improved handwriting message sending.
- improved the file transfers window’s behavior.
- improved chat session management.
- updated English handbook.
- 10 updated translations.
Obligatory shots:
There’s a lot more, specially under the hood; we try to keep KMess’ code easily understandable and well-commented so if you’d like to hack on it, I guarantee it’s very easy 
(I’ve actually learned Qt over KMess’ code, writing my first patch ever after less than a week, that had to mean something.. right? Right?! )
Beta 2 marks our very own KDE-style string freeze, so that you’ll be certain that your translations will be still valid when the final release will be out. [This is actually a call for translators! If you can, open up this page and help us, thank you very much]
To take a closer look to Beta 2, our screenshots page provides a nice visual guide on it!
On unrelated news, I’d like to spend a couple words on LikeBack: if you don’t know about it, it’s an awesome way to easily get feedback from your app’s users. We first learned about it from BasKet Note Pads, in its KDE3 incarnation, then I fell in love with it and ported it to KDE4 around October 2008, and fnally put it into action around February 2009. Since then, me and our Sjors have improved it a whole lot: having received our first comment on February the 4th, I can proudly say that as of today May 11th, we’re a tiny bit short of our 1200 reports mark!!
We’re really proud of this, a whole lot of people have helped us improve KMess! We’re listening, and you’ll find that KMess 2.1 will contain the vast majority of your requests and suggestions.
I think I’ll shortly blog about it in a deeper fashion, the 1.2 version released some weeks ago contains a whole lot of sauce, and I’ll explain LikeBack and its history more thoroughly, too.
As usual, if you have anything to say about KMess (or Likeback and you aren’t willing to wait for the next post!), the discussion is open both here and at our boards!
Monday, May 11th, 2009 @ 17:07 
Generally KMess
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May 11th, 2009 at 18:32
What’s that color scheme? It looks awesome!
May 11th, 2009 at 19:26
I love this MSN client. Everyone should give it a try
May 11th, 2009 at 22:49
@JavierBere: Thanks, I’ve made it myself: http://amroth.coldshock.net/stuff/OxygenBlueShade.colors
@Tiago:
May 11th, 2009 at 23:30
Does all these improvements will be included in Kopete too ? I really don’t like having more than one instant-messenging app on my desktop.
May 11th, 2009 at 23:38
> oes all these improvements will be included in Kopete too ? I really don’t like having more than one instant-messenging app on my desktop.
If the Kopete developers agree with our vision, they can implement the interface idea’s too off course. The protocol code was planned to be sharable already, but we had to move that to 2.1 and get a stable KDE 4 based release out first.
May 12th, 2009 at 00:22
We love Kmess !
May 12th, 2009 at 00:43
I also think it’s the best MSN client overall, just a few features short.
For example, i compiled the latest version against qt 4.5 and kde 4.3 and handwriting still doesn’t get sent to wlm2009 ( I test it everytime I update it ).
Another thing that I don’t like very much is the program tab in the task manager not glowing when I receive a message, just changes name every second and I don’t see when I receive a message because of that.
These are my only issues with kmess so far, I think. There was this one time that I couldn’t read emoticons sent from wlm2009 users, don’t know if it happens still.
Happy to see progress though, continue the good work
.
May 12th, 2009 at 01:32
wow I didn’t even know this app existed, good job guys!
Although I do agree that having more than one messaging client is annoying, merging the backend into kopete’s wlm support would be awesome!
May 12th, 2009 at 02:40
Guys – love the work you did. The KDE integration especially, I really like that!
May 12th, 2009 at 04:01
@n00bzor:
Live Messenger-compatible handwriting will be present on kmess 2.1, because we couldn’t get ISF and GIF support ready in time for 2.0, sorry!
As for the highlighting issue, it’s a KDE4.2 issue which will be resolved in 4.3 – but be sure to re-enable your “mark taskbar entry” events in the “Configure KMess… > Events” dialog
May 12th, 2009 at 04:18
[...] Gli sviluppatori di KMess, clone di Messenger per KDE, hanno avuto un’ottima idea per interagire con gli utenti in maniera diretta e immediata. Dopo averlo avviato vi renderete conto di quanto sia semplice riportare difetti e pregi e… in italiano! Basta installarne una versione di sviluppo, come l’appena uscito KMess 2.0 beta 1: [...]
May 12th, 2009 at 05:09
[...] Per ulteriori informazioni che riguardano KMess 2.0 Beta, consultare questa pagina. [...]
May 12th, 2009 at 06:57
@Amroth: Thanks for the link, I’m getting a 403 though unfortunately.
Also feel like I should add how much I love KMess, I’ve been using svn build for quite a few months now. It’s by far the best wlm client out there
May 12th, 2009 at 07:14
@Amaroth : Good to know, thanks for the info.
May 12th, 2009 at 08:41
JavierBere: Must’ve messed up with the permissions and I’m behind an ssh-blocking firewall atm.. so here you are
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=184bc7571e986b5c24a64199ac7f73e5e04e75f6e8ebb871
May 12th, 2009 at 14:48
Thanks :] You should put in on kde-look.org, it kicks major arse.
May 12th, 2009 at 16:10
[...] KMess 2.0 beta 2 is out! Hi, yesterday we’ve released our second beta of our next-gen Live Messenger client for KDE! [...]
May 13th, 2009 at 02:32
@JavierBere: Thanks, not a bad idea
@n00bzor: We need to add one more thing (in 2.1) to make Handwriting compatible with WLM, then we’ll be set!
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:43
[...] oryginalny wpis… [...]