Re: [Freetalk-dev] TextUI for FreeTalk

[Anand Avati]

> Hi guys,
> I have just used Freetalk for some hours now, and I think it's what I
> was looking for. It works fine but I think the interaction between the
> user and the application is not very efficient.

The default UI of Freetalk is suited for the authors' choice, and generally
meant for the power user. It has context specific autocompletion, on-spot
evaluation of lisp expressions (guile), and kind of stuffs the authors
preferred. Over time after using serveral console based messengers we found
that this model works best for us, and hence. readline was something we
preferred over ncurses for agility.

> I am interested in creating a Text User Interface using the ncurses lib.
> I am looking forward to hear what you are thinking about my intention.
> yanis.

Freetalk design is such that the UI is scripted in GNU Guile (scheme dialect
of lisp). Having a UI apart from the one provided is very much possible,
and also welcome into our contrib/ section. Using guile-ncurses, writing
and ncurses UI (or even GTK/QT/X) UI fits into the Freetalk core seamlessly.

Please have a look at examples/ for some very minimal examples of how you
can script your own freetalk client with the power of GNU Guile.

The Freetalk team will be happy to guide you hack an ncurses frontend, if
you decide to do so.

regards,
-- 
Anand V. Avati
http://hardcodecafe.com/~avati