[Linuxcommand-announce] [LinuxCommand.org: Tips, News And Rants] Project: Building An All-Text Linux ...

[William S. <bs...@pa...>]

Now that we have email working on our system, it's time to consider
other types of communication tools, in particular, messaging. Text
messaging is a very common form of communication today, often
surpassing email as way of sending short bursts of small messages.
Messaging actually has its roots in early Unix with the development of
the write and talk programs in the late 1970s While both talk and write
were used to communicate with multiple users sharing a single machine,
messaging today generally involves users scattered all over the globe
using the Internet.

There are many popular messaging protocols such as AIM (AOL Instant
Messenger), Jabber, MSN, IRC, and others and many client programs that
support one or more of these protocols. Many Linux users are familiar
with Pidgin, a graphical, multi-protocol, messaging client.

In this installment, we will install a text-based analog to Pidgin
called centerim, a fork of an earlier messaging client program called
centericq.

On our Debian workstation, we can easily install centerim this way:

me@linuxbox:~$ sudo apt-get install centerim

After the program is installed, we can invoke it like so:

me@linuxbox:~$ centerim

The first time centerim runs, it displays a two-part configuration
screen which is used to configure accounts and other stuff:







To demonstrate centerim in action, we'll configure an AIM account. On
the second configuration screen, we'll scroll down until we get to the
AIM protocol:




Next, we'll enter our account information including our AIM screen name
and password:




After we have the account defined, we use the right arrow key to
select "Done." Next, centerim displays our chat window:




Pressing the Esc key twice will take you to the top level menu and from
there you can go back to the configuration screens (F4) or quit the
program (q).

Further Reading

Centerim and centericq:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centerim
- http://www.centerim.org
- http://www.centerim.org/index.php/Documentation
- http://thekonst.net/centericq/
Historical background on text messaging:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_(software)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Write_(Unix)


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Posted By William Shotts to LinuxCommand.org: Tips, News And Rants at
2/24/2010 12:29:00 PM