Valhalla Legends Archive

Posted a new version.  What's new:

- Fixed issue which caused enter to not properly open a chat window with a user selected on contacts.
- Added support for automatically splitting messages.  You can send up to 48KB (yes, kilobytes) "at once" (this is the approximately maximum which the server will allow you to send within a short period of time without kicking you), split into messages of about 1600 bytes each.  Compare this to the official client's and Trillian's approximately 400 byte limit on outbound messages.

Posted a new version with some minor changes:

Added a second, high-resolution set of contact icons to be used when the screen resolution is at 16bpp or higher.

The contacts window will now automatically move itself to the top-right screen edge when the resolution changes.

On a related note, fixed an issue in the telnet server plugin which caused the focus to be incorrectly changed when opening an MSN session (the focus should have only been changed if it was not previously set).

This update fixes some crashing issues and adds a new userinterface element:

- Fixed an issue which could cause the program to refuse to connect or to crash.
- Added popup notification windows.  While enabled by default, they can be disabled via the View menu in the Contacts window.
- Chat windows belonging to sessions initiated by other users will be initially minimized, and won't take the focus.

Several new things added with this update.

- Fixed an issue where the plugin wouldn't automatically reconnect to the server properly under certain circumstances.
- Changed when status changes are stored in the settings area.  Previously, status changes were only saved to settings when the server confirmed the change, but they are now recorded as soon as you request the status change.  Note that your status will still be (both locally and remotely) displayed as what the server has you set to at any given moment; this only changes when status updates are saved to disk.
- If your status is set to Online, the program will automatically set your status to Idle if you haven't interacted with it in 5 minutes.  This does not replace your preferred status.  When you next interact with the program, it will change your status back to Online.
- If your status is set to Online and you switch to a fullscreen window, the program will automatically set your status to Busy.  When you switch to a non-fullscreen window, the program will restore your previous status.  Once again, this does not replace your preferred status.
- Notification windows will not be displayed if you are working with a fullscreen window.

Major update!  New in this version:

- Fixed an issue where windows would not be reused properly if their connected sessions were active.
- Fixed an issue where minimized windows with activated system menus would be mistakenly identified as fullscreen.
- Improved the accuracy of the idle detection code.  Fixed an issue where it would tend to go off right away if you didn't interact with the program in the first few seconds.
- Notification windows no longer take the focus when popping up.
- Added status bar to the list display window.  A summary of your status will be accessible from any list mode via the status bar.
- The plugin now remembers it's "Always on Top" state, and you can set it's server via the registry (messenger.hotmail.com, the default, will redirect you to a new server each time you connect).
- Added extensive UTF-8 (Unicode) support for chatting when using Windows NT.  This means that you can now properly send and receive messages containing characters from virtually any language.  When using Windows 9x, international character sets are partially - but not fully - supported; you may see some inconsistancies from time to time.

This release adds support for chat logging.  You can enable/disable this via the new Settings menu...

Logs are stored in a subdirectory named 'Logs'.  Each user's logs are stored in a subdirectory under this directory named after their passport e-mail address, with the log files themselves named mmddyyyy.log.  For example, [email protected]'s logs for 04/13/2003 would be in: Logs\[email protected]\04132003.log.  Log filenames are automatically switched when the date changes.

Additionally, this version introduces a new system for negotiating client capabilities with other clients.  In the future, this will be used to determine if other clients support extended features such as encrypted chat.

Major update!

- All the lists are now accessible from the View > View List menu.
- Blocked users now have a blocked icon for the Contacts List and Block List views.
- Added two new settings to View > Notify Windows: Allow in full-screen mode determines whether the program will generate popup notifiy windows when you're working with a fullscreen program, and System messages determnies whether the program will generate popup notify windows for messages from the MSN server (typically, "The server is going down in 10 minutes." type things).
- You can start a conversation with a user while in a view besides the Contacts List by double clicking the user or selecting them and hitting enter.  Exceptions: You can't start a conversation with a user on the block list this way.
- You can delete a user from the list you are currently viewing by selecting them and using the delete key.  Exceptions: You can't delete a user from the 'People Who Have Added Me' list.
- Added typing notification and last message received date support to the chat windows.  The client will both display typing notifications from other users (and unlike in some clients, it doesn't allow them to be spoofed), and will notify other clients of your typing a message.
- Fixed issues with the cllient capabilities negotiation.  Additionally, you can now view what information the program knows about other users in a conversation; use File > Client Informaton in a chat window.  Note that the official MSN client doesn't report any information; my client does, as well as gaim and a number of other third party clients (Trillian is not one of these).
- Reduced the border thickness for the chat window.
- A message will now be displayed in the chat window when the log file is changed (such as when you pass midnight).
- The logfile will be automatically switched if the person under whose name the log is going to leaves the conversation.
- The program will automatically decline invitations which it doesn't support.  Currently, this is everything; however, file transfer support is coming very soon!
- The status bar for the contacts window will now display a message if the program is in the progress of logging on.
- Fixed an issue where multiline messages would be truncated at the rate of one character per line.

Edit: Relatively minor service release:
- Fixed Windows 98 compatibility.
- Fixed link clicking.
- Added display of system message notifications if the program couldn't logon.

Changes:

- Added right-click menus for contacts in all four views.
- Added support for setting privacy options.  (Note: The program currently does not display a message when somebody adds you to their list (nor does it add them to your allow list).  This will be added in a future release.
- Added notifications of users placing you on their contacts list.
- The program will now leave a conversation if the only remaining users are blocked.
- An error message is displayed to the chat window if an attempt to invite a user was rejected by the server (for example, if you attempted to invite a blocked user).
- Added support for phone number tracking; you can view phone numbers by using the right click menu on a contact and selecting "Properties".
- Added full support for paging mobile devices.  You can send a message to somebody's mobile device if they've enabled this via the right click menu.
- Added support for displaying error messages when a page could not be delivered (if you have system message notifications enabled).
- Added notifications providing information as to why the server has signed you out in these cases, if system messages are enabled: server shutdown and signed out due to a duplicate logon.
- The program will no longer automatically reconnect if it's signed out due a duplicate logon.  This is so that you can use your MSN sign-in name from a different computer without getting kicked off every 20 seconds if you left MSNClient running...

Also, the standalone driver has been updated:  If you specify the -hidden command-line switch, the program will not display the Copy/Exit registry information window.

New in this version:
- Fixed several issues with the activation rectangle calculation for all list modes.  Both item selection and tooltips should use the correct bounds now.
- Improved spacing of the user properties window.
- Added better Unicode support to numerous portions of the program, including friendly (display) name handling, and the contacts window.  When running under Win9x, however, display names are converted to ANSI characters using the current code page.  This means that Unicode characters that can't be translated using the current locale settings may not display properly.

Known issues: Typing notifications don't properly show the  name when one person is typing.  This will be fixed in the next version.

Dude, how does this whole thread not belong in the "MSN Client/Bot Development" forum?!

I wish you would allow me to move it there.

Quote from: Invert on April 24, 2003, 02:13 AM
Dude, how does this whole thread not belong in the "MSN Client/Bot Development" forum?!

I wish you would allow me to move it there.

The MSN Client/Bot development forum is for issues relating to the protocol, not to specific clients.  To my knowledge, the same goes for all of the other bot/client development forums here.

Anyways, I've updated the program again:

- Fixed several issues causing users with native Unicode (e.g. WinNT, Win2K, WinXP) support being unable to properly invite users to a conversation.
- Fixed typing notifications to properly display a user's name when only one user was typing.
- Added HTTP proxy support.  Note that, like the official MSN client, my client does not use a standard HTTP proxy.  However, Microsoft runs a public MSN-compatible HTTP proxy at gateway.messenger.hotmail.com.  To select this with MSNClient, simply edit the registry string "Proxy Server" and set it to "gateway.messenger.hotmail.com".  Note that using the HTTP proxy will probably noticibly reduce performance and increase bandwidth usage.

Skywing is correct.  He is not discussing the MSN protocol, he is announcing one of his products, its features and upgrades.  Try to see more forest, less trees.

I was just trying to clean up the forest. Maybe the forum should be renamed. Skywings post is all about MSN Client Development.

How about renaming "MSN Client/Bot Development" forum to "MSN Protocol Development"?

Quote from: Invert on April 24, 2003, 03:17 PMMaybe the forum should be renamed. Skywings post is all about MSN Client Development.

Skywing's post is about his own client, not MSN Client Development in general, and as far as I can read (with the exception of a few complaints/notes about the protocol and the official client) his posts are not about MSN's protocol.

Though, it is indeed odd to have a specific client's development thread of a "General Discussion" forum. If Skywing doesn't want it moved to the generic MSN Client Development thread, perhaps it could be moved instead to a thread specifically for himself or his client (similar to Grok's forum, CupHead's forum, and etc).

This could be related to (as an example) CupHead doing his "By-the-consumer Bot" in his own forum (both the brainstorming thread and the status thread) instead of the in Battle.net Bot Development forum.

Uhhh ... what?  This is a general forum and from the topics these look pretty general.  Are you two suggesting these each have their own forums?  What, is there not enough to do out in the real world that you want to overmoderate this forum?

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