Licq 1.3.4 review

Licq is a multi-threaded ICQ clone written mostly in C++

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 0K Developer: Jon Keating

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Licq is a multi-threaded ICQ clone written mostly in C++. Licq project uses an extensive plugin system to manage many different functions.

The main gui is written using the Qt widget set. Licq is distributed under GPL with some special QPL exceptions for Qt.

Development is very ongoing, with new features and bugs fixed frequently, so updates are available often. The current version should be very stable, but as with all software use it at your own risk.

Here are some key features of "Licq":
Contact List - fully functionning online/offline user list with pixmaps and everything.
Messages - send and receive messages both online and offline through the server. Send in color too.
Chat - chat with other users in regular and multiparty mode, set/see colors/fonts and save chat session.
File transfer - batch transfer files to and from other icq users.
URL - send and receive URL's from other users.
Status - set status to any of the available ones, set and retrieve away message.
User info - retrieve and update all user and personal information.
Whitepages - full support for General/More/Work/About info as well as searches based on this info.
History - keeps a log of all messages to and from a user.
Add/remove and edit user information from within the program.
Invisible list - be invisible to some users all the time.
Visible list - be visible to some users when you are in invisible mode.
Online user notification - have a sound played when a specific user goes online
Last seen online - shows the last time you've seen this user online
Local time - displays the local time for the user
Away-to-User - be a different status to particular users
Accept-in-Away - automatically accept events from certain users in certain statuses
Send contact lists - send a list of users to other users
Search - full support for searching by email/uin/alias/whitepages
Random chat - find random users (and be found)
Server stored contacts - keep your groups and users stored on the server
Typing notification - see when the remot use is typing a message to you
Phone book - keep track of users phone numbers, and yours
User pictures - see the picture of the user, if they have one available
Proxy support - HTTPS proxy support to connect through a proxy server

New Features:

User groups - organize your users into groups.
Network monitor window - allows you to see the actual data being sent and received from mirabilis and other users.
Themed Docking - dock Licq using one of many different icon themes
Skin and icon pack support to make the qt-gui look like anything including transparent contact list
Customizable - allows full customization of colors, fonts, sizes and pixmaps for the contact list.
FIFO support for remotely controlling your licq session
Extensive utility support to add many new features.
Extensible OnEvent system for playing sounds or running programs when messages arrive, passing user specific information as arguments.
Plugin system allows for multiple possible GUIs, protocols, and other things.
International support with Unicode and translations
Fully multi-threaded for faster response and fewer slowdowns.
User floaty windows
Send urgent or to contact list with a single click
Always use the correct ip even if hostname is not set correctly
Option to flash all or just urgent incoming events
Accept modes for when to use OnEvents
Auto-raise and auto-popup incoming messages
Per-user customized auto responses
Statistics of how many messages you have sent & received and more
Tabbed chatting
SSL secure client to client connections
GPG encrypted messages

Requirements:
POSIX thread (pthreads) final draft support. Most operating systems support pthreads natively, however FreeBSD in particular does not completely support the final draft. To build using FreeBSD, see the README.FREEBSD file included in the main distribution.
Thread-safe X11 libraries. Again, most operating systems have no problem with this, but if you are using libc5 under Linux (ie you get "Fatal IO Error" when starting Licq) you will have to make sure that you are using thread-safe libraries (see www.xmms.org).
Qt 3.0 (libraries and developement headers). Check out http://www.trolltech.com for more information. This is only required if you want to use the Qt gui plugin (recommended).
C++. A c++ compiler and libstdc++ plus c++ headers are also required.
GNU Make. Comes with BSD and Linux, others will have to install it.

RPM users will need to ensure the following packages are installed:

qt (3.0 or greater)
libstdc++
gcc-c++
openssl (0.9.5a or greater)

Additionally if you are compiling from source you will need:

qt-devel
libstdc++-devel
XFree86-devel
Openssl for secure connection support (optional)
GpgMe for GPG support (optional)

What's New in This Release:
Fix a few bugs where users would falsely goffline
Make sending typing notifications optional
Fixes for newly registered users
Fix the handling of pidfiles sthat Licq always starts unless there actually is an other instance of Licq running.
64-bit compatibility changes
Compilation fixes
Fixes for Licq on Mac OS X (with Fink)
Iconv fixes
ICQ: Fix a bug where contacts would receive empty messages
ICQ: Update the protocol tproperly set inf
ICQ: Show more version information of remote clients
ICQ: Fix SSL issue
MSN: Fix a race error in MSN packet parsing
MSN: Fix socket handling
KDE: Addressbook fix
KDE: Add spell checking tthe kde-gui (Using KSpell)
Qt/KDE: Show user's pictures as a tooltip or status icon
Qt/KDE: Optional "Send with Enter"
Qt/KDE: Improve hyperlink detection
Qt/KDE: Improve emoticon detection and processing
Qt/KDE: Add a custom message box handler
Qt/KDE: New KDE iconset tbetter integrate with the KDE desktop
Many various minor bugs and crashes fixed... See http://tinyurl.com/ygdrffor details.