Linkinus

Infobox Software
name = Linkinus



caption =
latest_release_version = 1.3
operating_system = Mac OS X
genre = IRC Client
license = Proprietary
website = http://www.linkinus.com

Linkinus is a shareware IRC client for Mac OS X. Linkinus features an easy-to-use Aqua-stye user interface.Linkinus has support for user commands executing AppleScript or binary written in Objective-C, using Apple's Cocoa Plugin Framework.

Features

User interface

Linkinus's user interface is by default divided into three parts: On the left the servers and channels list to reach all servers and channels connected to in an outline view, in the center the Combined Chat room view, and on the right the list of users in the current channel. The latter disappears in a query (with only two users) or in a server tab (with no certain users visible).

Combined Chat

It is the central user interface element in Linkinus. It can display multiple chats (channels, queries, consoles) at the same time to monitor activity in all of them at once. One can then switch focus inside the Combined Chat view either by clicking on the topic of the chat to select or by cycling through the chats with Command-Shift-Up/Down.

Style support

Linkinus supports – like other IRC or IM clients like Adium, Kopete or Colloquy – user-created styles. Like Adium and Colloquy, Linkinus realizes this using the WebKit HTML rendering engine by Apple Inc.

Styles are created using a program written by the Linkinus developers called "Linkinus Style SDK", which includes an HTML editor, a CSS editor and a JavaScript editor, which can only be used to edit the predefined files. The program bundles the files into a folder, which is opened by Linkinus by default. Theoretically, it's also possible to create a style using common text editors like Emacs or vi, but the program makes it easy to combine it with the real SDK Linkinus's styles require.

Staying connected even when quitting the application

Linkinus provides the option to stay connected to IRC even when quitting the Linkinus main application, which may be very helpful on older machines that will become slow when running the Linkinus Client. It is realized in two ways:
* A server process:Linkinus starts a second process called "Linkinus Agent" when starting it the first time. This process connects to the IRC server, and delivers the data to the Linkinus Client. This makes the user able to keep track of conversations without running the client process all the time.
* Support for the Ezbounce service:
Ezbounce (see links below) is an IRC bouncer that stays connected and forwards messages to the client (like the Linkinus Agent process mentioned above). The advantages here are:
* Linkinus can be quit completely, even the server process needs not run.
* Users stay connected even when shutting down or rebooting their computers, or putting them into standby, and can read previous conversations which happened when they were not online.

Growl support

Linkinus includes support for Growl notifications. The Growl notification system is used to show the user various information without always needing to watch a certain applications.It can for example be used to show if there is activity in a certain channel or if a new private message is incoming.Also other IRC clients for Mac OS X include Growl support, such as Colloquy or X-Chat Aqua.

Custom commands

Linkinus supports various options to run custom user commands:
* from AppleScriptUsers can copy an AppleScript into Linkinus's script directory, and afterwards simply execute it using /. Scripts can also be given arguments.
* via plug-InPlugins for Linkinus can be written in Objective-C using the Cocoa Plugin Framework by Apple Inc., as mentioned above. They are executed the same way as scripts
* user masksUsers can define user masks in Linkinus's preferences, which can be used for example to make any user whose name contains "foo", or whose hostname is "bar.org" to operator, or similar tasks.

Other Features

Other features of Linkinus include:
* support for proxies and SSL
* DCC file transfers
* user-configurable flood protection
* IRC color codes
* customizable highlights (actions to be executed when users say certain keywords)

See also

*Comparison of instant messaging clients
*Comparison of instant messaging protocols

External links

* [http://www.linkinus.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.linuxftw.com/ezbounce/ Ezbounce Website]