NeXtGenIRC

Finally… Some News!

mr_man — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:09:58 +0000

Well sorry everyone for the lack of updates over the last few weeks. Work has just gone crazy, plus I’m having PC problems and need a new one. This means moving my dev stuff over to the new PC when it arrives. So due to this and work, there will be a short delay before I resume work on NXG4. But please don’t worry, this project is not abandoned or forgotten. See you all soon!

Success with New Approach…

mr_man — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:24:21 +0000

Just to let everyone know, the new approach is working great. Things are much more stable and smooth, as well as more responsive. I have fixed lots of bugs and made lots of improvements. Here is a screenshot of NXG4 running, with the Graphical Channel Topic working too:

Anyway, I’ll keep this post brief, but just so you all know, things are going well. Thanks for all the support.

mr_man

Developments…

mr_man — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:11:42 +0000

Well, 3 days wasted I’m afraid. The mIRC self threaded DLL approach is a no go. Even basic stuff just does not work in a DLL of this kind. And just to make sure it’s not just my lame coding at fault, I tried some professional code that is mature and stable, same thing. So…

I’m going back to the first method I was using, which is the use mIRC to call a DLL, which in turn creates a new process, which is then docked to mIRC. The benefits to this are innumerable. The only downside was the “orphaned process” thing if mIRC crashed, but I have solved that issue now too. So…

The future is bright, the future is NXG Stay tuned.

mr_man

Latest Beta News…

mr_man — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 07:17:09 +0000

Ok. I thought I should let you all know how the beta was received by the testers…

The initial tests proved successful, inasmuch as basic things worked, like connecting, chatting, events etc. Docking was functional and the display was adequate. However, after some “abuse” by some of the testers, like fast docking/undocking, docking to the wrong place and such like a few problems became apparent. Some errors, and in the worst case, mIRC crashed. This lead to another problem of the NXG4 process being orphaned and tricky to shutdown. Another approach is required…

…and has been undertaken! I am using a standard mIRC DLL for the GUI now, and letting mIRC thread it instead of doing it myself in a mediator like DLL. This means if mIRC does ever crash/shutdown, my GUI process will automatically be shutdown with it, which is a good thing . One downside to this is my HTML display just doesn’t work in an mIRC DLL. It just crashes instantly! So, rather than use an embedded IE web browser for the display I am now coding my own custom display. This is not HTML based, but interprets IRC colour codes correctly, and the palette is expandable, so once it is working, I can add more usable colours for IRC chat. Plus this removes any dependency on IE (or a specific version thereof) needing to be installed. Faster load times are also a benefit of this.

Basically, releasing the beta to testers was a success and a failure. However the failure has brought about some good changes that will only serve to improve NXG4, and so I see even the failure as a success. I anticipate Beta2 being ready in about a week or so. I will keep you all informed of progress. Thanks for all the support

mr_man

3 Days until Beta

mr_man — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:50:47 +0000

Just a quick progress report. I am on target for a beta release in 3 days. Also, mIRC 7.1 was released yesterday. I can confirm NXG4 will be completely compatible with 7.1, and may in fact require it. I will need a day or so of coding/scripting/testing to determine what changes (if any) I need to make to NXG4 to make full use of the new stuff in mIRC 7.1 … Stay tuned!

mr_man

7 Days to go…

mr_man — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:26:57 +0000

Well I am on target for a beta release to testers in 7 days! It will be basically functional, with 2 plugins (also betas) to make sure the whole thing is robust and flexible on all systems. Here is a screenshot of the FTP Server plugin inside NXG4…

Keep watching this site as I will be posting updates most days until beta release, then I’ll do a post on it’s reception and work that needs doing. After that it’s a matter of a little time until the first public release! Thanks for all the support as always

mr_man

Beta ETA…

mr_man — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:41:11 +0000

Things are progressing well. For a working beta (released only to testers (sorry!)) to be ready, I’m looking at about 10 days, providing paid work doesn’t interfere too much with my time.

The beta will have core functionality, but no major plugins included (I now have 15 of them planned). Once the beta is fully tested and debugged, I will start work on the important plugins first. Once they are done and dusted, expect the first public release of v4. Other plugins and updates will follow.

I’d like to thank Tynian, Cheiron and Punktured for their encouragement, and also DHAmoKK for his ideas, plus all the other posters and users out there. You guys make it worthwhile!

mr_man

Another week…

mr_man — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:36:00 +0000

Raws are done!!! Just a few need theming now, but that won’t take long. Updates to the plugin system too, screenshot below:

I also started work on the profile system, which is similar to the one in 2.05, but with a few enhancements… here is a screenshot:

Also, here is a list of planned plugins, just to whet your appetite…

FTP Client
FTPd
Email Client
Newsgroup Reader
HTTPd
IRCd
SSH Client
Chess Game
Xplorer
Hex Editor
Browser

Bear in mind these are just the main plugins, not the full functionality of NXG4, it will do much more as well using inbuilt modules. If anyone has any ideas for new plugins, let me know and I’ll consider them See you soon!

mr_man

July Update…

mr_man — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 07:34:23 +0000

Apologies for the lack of an update last weekend, I did get some work done on NXG4 but no time to post about it. Anyway, last week and this week have been quite productive. I still have some raw events to script/code/theme, but as that was getting a little bit boring I decided to recode the plugin architecture. It is now much more solid and tidy. I have implemented tear-off tabs for each plugin that gets loaded, so if you want the FTP Client plugin in it’s own floating window you just drag it off the tabsheet for example. To re-dock, simply close the window.

I really hope to get all the raws done this weekend as they are becoming a tad dull to code (must be done though) and then I can move onto more interesting and exciting stuff. I’ll keep you all posted. Thanks again for all the emails and comments, they are truly motivational

mr_man

Update on weekend of development…

mr_man — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:21:16 +0000

Well I had a good 12 hours of development time for NXG4 this weekend, and got quite a lot done. The nicklist is now finished apart from colours and a popup. It responds to all events correctly, updates smoothly and will be much more stable then the nicklist in 2.05. There aren’t many events to code for now, but there are a number of raws that need to be added to the theme system and event handler so that is the job for this week.

Anyway, thanks for your continued patience and support, I appreciate all the emails and comments I get

mr_man