Software update: KMess 2.0 final

Last Friday the final release of version 2.0 of KMess was released. Kmess is a Windows Live Messenger client for the Linux platform that integrates seamlessly into KDE. The main changes in version 2.0 are the transition to version 4 of KDE, support for emoticons and winks, and the introduction of tabs in the chat screens. Furthermore, the server protocol has been aligned with version 8.1 of Live Messenger. Webcam is still not possible: that stands for version 2.1 on the roadmap. Below is the complete overview of changes since version 1.52, the previous stable version:

Added

• Ability to re-use previously opened chat windows after reconnecting.
• A dark chat style suitable for use with dark KDE color themes.
• A DBus remote control interface, to enable interaction with KMess from other applications.
• Application-wide settings dialog, which includes an account manager.
• A contact search box in the contact list.
• Automatic reconnection after unwanted disconnections, keeping the previous status.
• Connecting over HTTP, to deal with corporate firewalls which only allow connections to browse the web.
• Contact emoticon blacklist, to block annoying custom emoticons from contacts.
• A contact list exporting dialog.
• Options to copy a contact’s email, name, message, listened music and links present in the name/message.
• Detection of network connection availability, using Solid.
• Fading effect for long text labels and the contact list.
• Fast-retype of previous sentences using Ctrl+Up/Ctrl+Down.
• Full MSN Plus text-formatting support in chat and in the contact list.
• Group selection box to the “add contact” dialog.
• IRC like command handling in the chat window (/away, etc..)
• KWallet support to store account passwords in a secure way.
• Likeback support to collect user feedback, ported from Basket of KDE 3.
• Chat log history dialog.
• Full offline messaging support.
• Option to choose a directory where to put all received files.
• Option to choose a previously set display picture for the account.
• Option to choose the browser and email client used to open Web links.
• Option to choose the dimensions of the pictures in the contact list.
• Option to choose the interval of ports used for fast file transfers.
• Option to disable displaying received winks.
• Option to display all offline contacts in a single group (“mixed” group mode).
• Option to hide currently empty groups.
• Support to configure the application’s tool bars and menus.
• Support to send and receive handwritten messages (still doesn’t work with some Messengers).
• Optional tabbed chat support.
• A contact properties dialog.
• KDE proxy support.

Fixed

• Appearance when using right-to-Left languages, like Arabic.
• Bug preventing temporary accounts to be correctly cleaned up.
• Chat window focus issues.
• Disconnections after many hours of use.
• Displaying duplicate status messages.

Improved

• Appearance of the contact list when antialiasing is enabled.
• Chat logging support, now allowing saving chats as files in text or HTML format.
• Chat notifications to be compatible with the new Plasma notifications of KDE 4.2.
• Client name detection of contacts.
• Chat window appearance with movable panels.
• Protocol support, upgraded the server core protocol to MSNP15.
• Reporting of error messages, using notifications for warnings.
• The file transfer messages within the chat.