Literally, Hiss is the sound a Python makes when "talking." Hence, it is the code name for a new instant messaging client which rethinks the way that people communicate online. Many features are borrowed from other messaging clients, but since it is written in "Python":http://python.org, we expect to have more and higher quality features faster. It should be pretty crossplatform as well with minimal work on our part. Hiss has been tested on Linux and Wyndows 2000 (6.25.2003: Wyndows support is currently broken). We expect it will work on any POSIX-compliant system. Some of the (proposed) main features of Hiss:
- o "Jabber":http://jabber.org only. All other services should be transports of Jabber. One of our
- developers is working on a way to use "Gaim":http://gaim.sf.net protocol plugins as Jabber transports.
- o Multiple accounts supported and treated as one. This feature is copied from Everybuddy, Trillian,
- and to a lesser extent, Gaim (which only combines your accounts, not your buddies). Under Hiss, any account information, be it yours or the people you chat with, should be properly abstracted away.
- o A rich PluginSystem. Plugins should be super easy to write and have considerable power. Naturally,
- we only plan to support plugins in Python at this point. We hope that many of the features will be implemented as plugins, enforcing modularity and customizability.
- o DynamicGroups: A special type of group which performs queries on your buddy list but appears like
- a normal group.
o WhiteBoarding?: Possibly compatible with Coccinella.
o ChatReferences?: The ability to easily use arrows and point to segments of text.
- o Minimal screen usage (optional, of course): Hiss should try to conserve screen space. No menus
- or formatting toolbars when the window isn't in focus. See HoveringDiscussion.
- o The usual crap. It should be customizable and easy to use. Though there may be tons of
- preferences, there will be several mechanisms for finding preferences quickly, including context menus and searching.
o Open source. Hiss is available under the GPL license.
Some of our design goals:
- o Reusable components: The plugin system ("Outlet"), Preferences system,
- Tk Log Viewer, and TkSched? are all designed to work outside of Hiss. Standalone versions of them may be released at some point. The scheduler may be extracted at some point too.
- o Pythonic interfaces to XML: While knowing XML and Jabber protocol is important for Hiss core and
- Hiss plugin developers, we hope to abstract the actual writing of XML as much as possible.
- o Simple plugin creation: We want to test out instant messaging ideas quickly and with minimal
- overhead. Plugins, being the core of Hiss, should be easy to create.