Grapevine 2 supports ICQ | Drobe.co.uk archives

Grapevine 2 supports ICQ

By Chris Williams. Published: 12th May 2004, 16:05:22 | Permalink | Printable

lol asl plzzz???2

Version two of Grapevine, R-Comp's commercial online communication software, has been announced, with the application now providing protocol support for ICQ as well as MSN Messenger and IRC. Using these protocols, you can connect to various networks and send instant messages to friends over the Internet. Grapevine 2 also brings various updates and enhancements to the application's GUI.

"Grapevine allows you to communicate online with friends, family members, colleagues and so on," R-Comp explained in an email earlier today. "Not only can you have conversations with them online, but you can send and receive files, link out to websites and email, etc. Grapevine uses industry standard protocols, meaning that your friends can be using other types of computer (eg. Windows or Mac)."

Grapevine was first released in May 2002 and successfully saw off Microsoft's changes and updates to the MSN Messenger system, which felled every other RISC OS MSN client. The addition of ICQ supports makes Grapevine the only actively developed and known to be working RISC OS ICQ client.

Links

Grapevine website - pricings and details. You can also catch drobe.co.uk editors and writers on IRC too, on ircnet.

Previous: RiscPC breaks 1.5GHz barrier
Next: Qercus front cover and Vantage

Discussion

Viewing threaded comments | View comments unthreaded, listed by date | Skip to the end

Well done to rcomp.

Revin Kevin on 12/5/04 4:13PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Cool, a reason to buy Grapevine.

fylfot on 12/5/04 4:17PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

hmm, I still hate the icons in Grapevine, unless they just forgot to update the screenshots.

fylfot on 12/5/04 4:19PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

The screenshots do look very poor although I'm not really a fan of the Grapevine product page at all. That aside, it looks like a useful product.

jonix on 12/5/04 4:34PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Grapevine is one of the most visually disgusting RISC OS applications there ever has been. A truly embarassing piece of software to be seen using. It works, though. Most of the time. Maybe I'd consider the upgrade simply if they made it look less grim.

imj on 12/5/04 7:08PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Guys, the icons are sprite files, so there's no reason you can't skin it if you like. Also GV2 supports any size emoticons so you can change those too. All I can say is that GV graphics are a matter of taste, like all such things, and if you have alternative design's, we'd be interested to see any mockups etc. One of the things which may well get added to GV2 is a skin selector of some kind, too, if people are interested.

arawnsley on 13/5/04 9:40AM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

PS, some of the gfx have changed a little, but overall look is still coloured buttons per protocol, based on the over-riding colour of that protocol's corporate image. What I would say, is that if you try using ICQlite (or pro for that matter) on Windows, and come back and use GV, you'll probably be rather pleased with the consistancy in GV's UI and design.

arawnsley on 13/5/04 9:43AM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I like consistency within the OS. I don't want every app on my desktop to look completely different. It's one of the most annoying things that developers can do.

jonix on 13/5/04 11:44AM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Why, whenever there's a program with skins, there's no OS skin?

mavhc on 13/5/04 1:32PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

arawnsley:

From what I can gather, the current icons only appeal to a very narrow group of people.

The default icons should be plain and clean. After all, most people don't have the time to be messing about with icons themselves. Also, you might sell some more copies if it looked clean and tidy like most RISC OS applications do.

And if people are still desperate for a bunch of tacky, and as img described, "visually disgusting" icons, they can put some in themselves.

fylfot, in an over-the-top mood. :o)

fylfot on 13/5/04 1:42PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Is how the Icons look really that important?.

What should matter is how well the application does the job it was intended for, is it easy to set up / use and is it well supported?.

Using those criteria Grapevine is a verry verry good application and potentially a great one.

Vic

vshears on 13/5/04 4:22PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I like those icons :-)

Grek1 on 13/5/04 4:30PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

vshears:

"Is how the Icons look really that important?"

Yes, it is important. How it looks will influence whether or not someone will buy it. This is the reason why most websites show screenshots of programs. Looks are important.

I agree that the most important thing is functionality, but one of the reasons I like RISC OS is that applications are clean and, on the whole, visually appealing. Look at the new GUI for NetSurf for example, it's absolutely superb; the developers have kept window funiture to a minimum.

Of course you can't please everyone, but keeping things clean, neat and tidy is a good start - you can hardly offend anyone with this approach. And if they find that boring, then they can change it.

fylfot on 13/5/04 4:40PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I can understand that you may use the way Icons look as one of your criteria in choosing an application for a task when many alternatives are available to do it.

However Grapevine is the only RISCOS messenger client to work with the current MSN protocol so in this case the Icons seem to have a very low priority.

Vic

vshears on 13/5/04 6:45PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I can only completely agree with what fylfot says. The consistent look of applications happens to be one of the main reasons I use RISC OS. By all means support fancy themes in addition to the default OS look and feel but do not force these onto the user. Call me shallow

but in this case, looks are important and in this case, might be costing sales.

jonix on 13/5/04 11:12PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

You may have a point. Some peole may be so shallow that they woukd rather do without an MSN messenger client than but up with a few non RISC OS standard Icons but I do not think the number would be very high?.

Especially as with GV all the menus etc are standard RISC OS format. It is only the actual protocol windows which use the non standard Icons and as Amdrew has stated there is nothing to stop you changing them. Heck he has even requested input into alternative design's and stated that if there is a demand they may well add a skin selector to GV2.

vshears on 14/5/04 12:02PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I dont think the Icons are disgusting ! Its one of the most useful apps.I stay in touch with mates from all around the world, send files. Its the only app which works with MSN chat for our platform. Whatever happened to AOL chat ? Great app thanks RComp

Fuzzie on 14/5/04 12:07PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

As far as I am aware, AOL and ICQ use very similar protocols (since ICQ is owned by AOL and was changed by them). Therefore, subject (of course) to ongoing sales of GV2 funding development....

arawnsley on 14/5/04 1:02PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

"Some peole may be so shallow that they woukd rather do without an MSN messenger client."

I don't think there's any need to start insulting people.

Everyone makes decisions differently and it is for this reason that I would advise R-Comp provide a more neutral looking version of Grapevine so that they will hopefully gain more sales.

Surely we don't have to 'put up and shut up' simply because it's a RISC OS program?

fylfot on 14/5/04 3:37PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Pardon! I was insulting no one. I was simply picking un on what Jonix had said ie "call me shallow" and stating that I could not belive that the number of people that would not purchase a useful application because they did not like a few Icons that they could easily change would be very high.

Please read peoples comments more carefully before accusing them.

Vic

vshears on 14/5/04 4:58PM
[ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Please login before posting a comment. Use the form on the right to do so or create a free account.

+++ Message board +++

Read messages or start a new thread

Search the archives

Today's featured article

Online banking with RISC OS
We thought this would be of high interest

28 comments, latest by devine on 25/9/05 8:30AM. Published: 1 Sep 2005

Random article

New number puzzle game for sudoku package
SuperDoku gains Futoshiki, a 5x5 puzzle with no blocks but with comparison signs between some of the squares to indicate which contains the larger value, among other updates.

Discuss this. Published: 20 Jan 2009

Create a new account
Forgot your password?

Useful links

News and media:
Iconbar • MyRISCOS • ArcSite • RISCOScode • ANS • C.S.A.Announce • Archive • Qercus • RiscWorld • Drag'n'Drop • GAG-News

Top developers:
RISCOS Ltd • RISC OS Open • MW Software • R-Comp • Advantage Six • VirtualAcorn

Dealers:
CJE Micros • APDL • Castle • a4 • X-Ample • Liquid Silicon • Webmonster

Usergroups:
WROCC • RONE • NKACC • IRUG • SASAUG • ROUGOL • RONWUG • MUG • WAUG • GAG • RISCOS.be

Useful:
RISCOS.org.uk • RISCOS.org • RISCOS.info • Filebase • Chris Why's Acorn/RISC OS collection • NetSurf

Non-RISC OS:
The Register • The Inquirer • Apple Insider • BBC News • Sky News • Google News • xkcd • diodesign

© 1999-2009 The Drobe Team. Some rights reserved, click here for more information
Powered by MiniDrobeCMS, based on J4U | Statistics
"RISC OS needs a frequently updated news site that has all the news, not just a carefully selected sample. Currently this simply isn't Drobe"
Page generated in 0.0619 seconds.