Thank you for accepting my url suggestion.

Also, I never thought about Xchat’s url switch – never knew it existed. I agree this is the way to go.

I didn’t know any of Xchat’s switches until last night. I’ve always used command-line IRC clients on GNU/Linux. But I grok the consistancy principle (which ESR, exapansively, calls the principle of least surprise), and I expect all configurable programs have a command-line switch to adjust where they look for their configuration file. When I installed Xchat to find this switch (which is cfgdir), I discovered the url switch.

The official name of the finished project… is “LUG/IP GNU/Linux”

I forgot that. I changed BCD to GNU/Linux in my recent blog.

If I fall back to just saying “ISO” here and on IRC, don’t panic — it’s just shorthand.

(Emphesis mine)

Ooh! That sounds like you’ll blog again. I’m happy now.

I agree with your comments (except the point[1] about Xchat already being configured – my mind doesn’t work that way).

Also, I never thought about Xchat’s url switch – never knew it existed. I agree this is the way to go.

As far as “ISO” is concerned, it’s not the official name of the finished project, which is “LUG/IP GNU/Linux”. For development though, the ISO is ultimately the thing that gets created. Aside from the sneakernet of burned copies, the ISO is the only version of the product which can be readily distributed.

That said, the initial post is a bit misleading and will be edited (probably by the time you read this).

It should also be noted that “ISO” is whole hellavulot easier to type than “LUG/IP GNU/Linux”, so if I fall back to just saying “ISO” here and on IRC, don’t panic – it’s just shorthand.

I’m happy to see you posting a blog after a long hiatus.

If I understand correctly, you explain 4 reasons for not configuring GAIM to autojoin #lug/ip on freenode.

(1) Xchat is already configured to autojoin #lug/ip
(2) You believe it would be against Mr. Raymond’s principle of least surprise
(3) Your afraid someone might mis-interpret your motivations
(4) It might confuse people unfamilar with IRC or GAIM

I agree with all 4 reasons, but I think they all apply equally to xchat. If I understand correctly, you explain 2 ways GAIM and Xchat differ.

(1) Xchat is a single protocol (IRC) client, and GAIM is a multiple protocol client, and people choosing to use IRC may want to stop by #lug/ip, but people selecting GAIM may not
(2) Xchat will be utilised by a LUG/IP help dialouge

I think many people who want to use IRC from the LUG Bootable CD (BCD[1]) will want to connect to #lug/ip, but I think anyone familar with IRC can acomplish that without our assistance.

Utilising IRC in the help dialouge is an excellent idea, but if we can allow IRC newbies to autoconnect to #lug/ip without compromising the normal functioning of Xchat, I think we have an obligation to make it happen. I suggest the help dialouge execute Xchat with it’s url switch:


xchat --url=irc://irc.freenode.net/#lug/ip


I didn’t think any of this through when I asked if we could set GAIM up to autoconnect. I cannot appologise for other people’s neative responses, but I do appologise for asking you to act without thinking of the consequences of that action. If you listened to me, you would’ve taken the blame, and it would be my fault.

-Dave

[1] I don’t like calling it an ISO. I think of ISOs as things that waste space on my filesystems and prevent me from doing useful things like bittorrenting por^H^H^H educational movies.