Computer Science Canada Google Talk - The IM for Programmers |
| Author: | haskell [ Wed Dec 27, 2006 9:13 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Google Talk - The IM for Programmers |
So, I've been a GTalk user for a while now, and I have come to deeply appreciate its uses for speaking to other Programmers. Which is why I think you guys should know all about it. Being fellow programmers and all. Google Talk Pros -------------------- 1. Crazy Copy&Paste space. I have pasted entire webpages into one message. Making it perfect for sharing code and such(or webpage content O.o). To get a glimpse, I have pasted a full Google search webpage in one message around 6-8 times for one message. 2. Minimalist. Isn't flashy and annoying. 3. Hackable. You can have multiple instances, change the window colour and etc... all from command line arguments! I am currently working on syntax highlighting for it. 4. Text Formating. Copy&Paste this: *I rox in bold blue* 5. Not by Microsoft Cons -------------------- 1. Not widely used You need a Google Account to use Google Talk. Which you can get here You can get Google Talk here You can add me on GTalk if you want to see it in action(see my sig). Thanks for viewing, and please post comments and such. I don't want my opinion to be the be-all-end-all... The alpha and the omega. Etc... |
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| Author: | [Gandalf] [ Wed Dec 27, 2006 9:56 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Google Talk - The IM for Programmers |
haskell wrote: The alpha and the omega.
And theta? 
I believe we had two topics on Google Talk in the past... Here and here. Anyway, the main thing I wanted to point out was that you can use GTalk with other IM clients which support multiple protocols, as seen here. Which allows you to use it when possible and not being limited by the user base. |
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| Author: | haskell [ Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:01 pm ] |
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Yep. They do that. But they lack some of the pros of the official client(C&P). Thought the client isn't open source, or cross platform(yet), it is great. Which is the point of the topic, the use of the GTalk client for distance Windows dev'ers. |
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| Author: | Andy [ Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:43 pm ] |
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how is "not from microsoft" a pro? |
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| Author: | rdrake [ Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:55 pm ] |
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Andy wrote: how is "not from microsoft" a pro? It's not buggy, bloated, and doesn't take longer than the space shuttle to fire up? |
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| Author: | Andy [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 12:01 am ] |
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and msn messnger is? i'm sick tired of so many people trash talking microsoft... |
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| Author: | haskell [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 12:46 am ] |
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Microsoft is centered around itself(can't really blame the company). Meaning it probably won't make its products for Mac and Linux(Web Messenger is cross-platform though). Making Microsoft "evil" in an open source advocate prospective(though Google isn't exactly a practitioner either). As well as in the non-Windows users eyes. Making it a pro in context as a product to aid in the destruction of the evil company, which everyone secretly loves lol(like the Liberal party). As crazy as it sounds, many people support it. Plus it isn't really serious. I love Microsoft, and their wonderful .NET environment. |
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| Author: | Martin [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 3:10 am ] |
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MSN messenger is hella bloated. Nudges? Flash animations? A million buttons along the side? Multiplayer flash games? Come on, it's an IM client... |
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| Author: | Andy [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:28 am ] |
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and it still only hogs 9mb of ram. i dont know about you, but i actually use some of the winks, and play a few of the games at times. i think it works fine. |
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| Author: | md [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 11:34 am ] |
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Andy wrote: i dont know about you, but i actually use some of the winks, and play a few of the games at times. i think it works fine. Smilies are portable to most clients, winks and nudges less so; games not at all.
It's a IM client though, imho there should be more support for IM protocols and less support for everything else imaginable. If I want games, I play games; if I want to talk to people I use IMs. Keeping the two seperate is generally speaking a good idea. And yes, Microsoft is evil. However mostly they are evil for their business tactics; the state of their software is reprehensible, but not evil. Except Vista. Vista is completely and totally evil. |
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| Author: | haskell [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 11:40 am ] |
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Their tactics were evil. Back around 98 with all the suing and legal battles. Bill Gates was in like every issue of Time back then lol... |
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| Author: | Tony [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 2:34 pm ] |
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Microsoft tactics aside, GTalk/Jabber simply connects me to the network first (even though I click on MSN to start connecting first)(I run them both through Adium, so this is network hookup time, not app loading). And I see more GTalk uptime than with MSN. |
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| Author: | rizzix [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:11 pm ] |
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haskell wrote: Meaning it probably won't make its products for Mac and Linux(Web Messenger is cross-platform though). Actually they do have Msn Messenger for mac and... it works just as good as their Office 2004 for mac osx. (which btw, is pretty good).. Either way I don't use it..
Adium rules.. heh |
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| Author: | Tony [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 8:24 pm ] |
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Well Mac MSN is couple of versions behind, and it's discountinued anyways. |
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| Author: | Craige [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 9:26 pm ] |
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As has already been said, a downside to Gtalk is it not being cross platform. It is forgivable though considering it is in beta, but I have not seem much effort from Google to make any of their software cross platform to date. Gtalk does seem to be the programmers instant messenger though, just as Gmail has been, and still really is. The majority of the public doesn't know about the services, and thus it goes out to the programmers who are gathering all this information. As far as my personal preference for IM's, I would have to say either AIM or Gtalk for their simplicity. As has been said, I don't want 2 million features in my instant messenger. That's not why I use it. All I really want is to be able to send instant messages, voice calls, video, files, and the option for smilies, though I often have them turned off on my end to keep from braking code sent in IM's. |
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| Author: | TheFerret [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 9:53 pm ] |
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Andy wrote: and it still only hogs 9mb of ram.
i dont know about you, but i actually use some of the winks, and play a few of the games at times. i think it works fine. I don't know about you Andy but just running the main MsnM window and just that, it is using 64mb memory, so it does hog memory... Right now MsnM is using the second most memory in my system right now following Opera but that is expected since it is an Internet browser after all... An IM client should not be using that much memory just for the main window ever, so it is bloated and unefficent... |
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| Author: | md [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 10:13 pm ] |
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Craige wrote: As has already been said, a downside to Gtalk is it not being cross platform. It is forgivable though considering it is in beta, but I have not seem much effort from Google to make any of their software cross platform to date.
Google Earth, Picasa and the Google Toolbar all run on linux; Google Desktop and GTalk don't. So out of 5 major apps, three run on linux. No, not a lot of effort at all 
Craige wrote: Gtalk does seem to be the programmers instant messenger though, just as Gmail has been, and still really is. The majority of the public doesn't know about the services, and thus it goes out to the programmers who are gathering all this information.
As far as my personal preference for IM's, I would have to say either AIM or Gtalk for their simplicity. As has been said, I don't want 2 million features in my instant messenger. That's not why I use it. All I really want is to be able to send instant messages, voice calls, video, files, and the option for smilies, though I often have them turned off on my end to keep from braking code sent in IM's. GTalk is just jabber, you can use any jabber client to connect to the network. So while yes GTalk is not (yet) cross platform, as a network gtalk is extremely cross platform (as is the msn messenger network). Oh, and when you say you don't want endless features it's best not to list all the features of msn, etc. that could be contrused as "endless features". IM is for text messages, there are many other (much better) apps for filesharing and voice chat.  |
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| Author: | Craige [ Thu Dec 28, 2006 10:22 pm ] |
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md wrote: Google Earth, Picasa and the Google Toolbar all run on linux; Google Desktop and GTalk don't. So out of 5 major apps, three run on linux. No, not a lot of effort at all
I was unaware of that. Apologies. Quote: GTalk is just jabber, you can use any jabber client to connect to the network. So while yes GTalk is not (yet) cross platform, as a network gtalk is extremely cross platform (as is the msn messenger network). Yes, I know that. However I meant it is up to google to provide a version for other OS's. Quote: Oh, and when you say you don't want endless features it's best not to list all the features of msn, etc. that could be contrused as "endless features". IM is for text messages, there are many other (much better) apps for file sharing and voice chat. Yes, while there are better applications for voice chat and file sharing, I am saying it is something I would like in my instant messenger as an option. |
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| Author: | BenLi [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:42 am ] |
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MSN takes up 13 mb for me. Personally, I find MSN to be to much. So many tabs on the sides and ads on the bottom. If you want a simple IM client, how about using Windows Messenger. Usually when people bash Microsoft, they refer to the fact that its propriertary, and people would rather use open sourced stuff, but that does apply in this case I suppose. However, I agree with Andy. Too many people bash Microsoft. While some have legitimate complaints about the company, others just join the "I hate Microsoft" bandwagon. |
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| Author: | bugzpodder [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 10:55 am ] |
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simply put, I use IM to talk to people, not just programmers. And It appears that the majority uses MSN because it has more cool features and a cool add-on called Messenger Plus! |
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| Author: | rdrake [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 11:28 am ] |
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Only reason I use MSNM is due to the fact that almost nobody uses the alternatives. IRC is great for talking to a lot of people at once, random or not. Usually use IRC more than MSNM now-a-days anyways... |
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| Author: | Craige [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 12:29 pm ] |
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rdrake wrote: Only reason I use MSNM is due to the fact that almost nobody uses the alternatives. IRC is great for talking to a lot of people at once, random or not. Usually use IRC more than MSNM now-a-days anyways...
Yes. MSNM has the majority of the market, followed by AIM (though everybody I talk to uses AIM). IRC is a nice communication tool as well. I have an idea in my head for a server that allows IM clients of any brand to form/join an IRC channel (and therefor allowing cross client communication). I hope to get into coding in in '07 sometime. |
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| Author: | wtd [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 12:37 pm ] |
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Correction: MSn messenger has a pretty good grip on the market in Canada and Europe, because AOL got cocky and didn't think they had to properly market there. It's a very different situation in the US, which, like it or not, remains a hugely important market. |
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| Author: | Craige [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:46 pm ] |
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wtd wrote: Correction: MSn messenger has a pretty good grip on the market in Canada and Europe, because AOL got ****y and didn't think they had to properly market there.
It's a very different situation in the US, which, like it or not, remains a hugely important market. Ah. Wasn't aware of that. I use AIM for communicating with most people. MSNM is just open in case somebody sends me a message with it. So who here actually uses Gtalk? I find I don't see anybody using it, though I would like them to. |
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| Author: | bugzpodder [ Fri Dec 29, 2006 4:49 pm ] |
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when i said majority i meant majority of my friends, not the market. In fact, every single one of them uses MSN rather than AIM or GTalk |
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