  The EbQt Manual
  Chris Boyle <cmb@debian.org>
  Version 0.2.0 (05/01/2003)

  This manual describes EbQt Version 0.2.0: what it is, where to get a
  copy, how to install it, how to use it and what to do if you have
  problems using it.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Table of Contents


  1. Introduction
     1.1 What is EbQt?
     1.2 What does it look like?
        1.2.1 The Buddies tab
        1.2.2 The Accounts tab
        1.2.3 The Connect tab
        1.2.4 Conversation windows

  2. Installation
     2.1 Requirements
     2.2 Why are there no binary packages? (debs, rpms, Slackware tgzs, etc)
     2.3 Getting the source
     2.4 Compiling the source
     2.5 Installing (make install)

  3. Getting started
     3.1 Start eb-lite
     3.2 Start EbQt
     3.3 Connect to eb-lite
     3.4 Add a local account
     3.5 Sign in
     3.6 Add some contacts
     3.7 Talk to someone
     3.8 Getting more help

  4. Troubleshooting
     4.1 Problems installing EbQt
     4.2 Problems starting EbQt
     4.3 Problems connecting to eb-lite
     4.4 Problems with buttons not responding
     4.5 Some other problem

  5. Contacting the Authors
  6. Glossary
  7. Copyright, License and Disclaimers


  ______________________________________________________________________

  [1m1.  Introduction[0m


  This section is mainly for the benefit of users who want to know more
  about the program before deciding to install it. If you just want to
  know how to use it, you can skip this section.


  [1m1.1.  What is EbQt?[0m


  EbQt is part of Everybuddy <http://www.everybuddy.com/>, which
  provides several instant-messaging and chat services (e.g.  MSN
  Messenger <http://messenger.msn.com/>, ICQ <http://www.icq.com/> and
  IRC) in one program. It uses eb-lite <http://www.everybuddy.com/eb-
  lite/index.php>, a new version of Everybuddy rewritten to provide no
  interface itself, but instead to communicate with a separate interface
  program. EbQt is one such interface, for Qt/X11
  <http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/x11.html> (the same toolkit as
  KDE <http://www.kde.org/>).

  You can connect several interfaces at once, and interfaces can be on a
  different machine from eb-lite, running a different operating system.
  There could be a web-based interface, or even an interface using
  speech recognition and synthesis. You can even leave eb-lite running
  with no interface at all, and it will hold messages for you until you
  return and connect an interface.



  At the time of writing, other interfaces are being written for:

  +o  GTK <http://www.gtk.org/> (the toolkit that previous versions of
     Everybuddy used, which is to GNOME <http://www.gnome.org/> as
     Qt/X11 is to KDE)

  +o  Ncurses <http://www.gnu.org/directory/libs/ncurses.html> (a text-
     only environment)

  +o  the web - install it on a web server and just use your browser

  +o  Java - should work on almost all operating systems

  +o  and possibly more

     but EbQt looks set to be the first to be reasonably complete and
     stable.



  [1m1.2.  What does it look like?[0m


  To give you more help in deciding whether EbQt meets your needs (yet)
  if you haven't already installed it, here are some screenshots.


  [1m1.2.1.  The Buddies tab[0m



  The Buddies tab shows your contact list, like a folder tree in most
  file browsers, starting with groups, which contain contacts, which
  contain accounts (hidden here). You can click the box showing
  "contacts" and change to "accounts", which will expand all the
  contacts to show their accounts.

  The other box, showing "all" here, can be set to "online", to show
  only online contacts (those who have at least one account online).


  [1m1.2.2.  The Accounts tab[0m



  These are your accounts that you can (tell eb-lite to) sign in with.


  [1m1.2.3.  The Connect tab[0m



  This tab is for connecting to eb-lite.


  [1m1.2.4.  Conversation windows[0m



  This is a typical conversation. I should probably point out that:

  +o  conversation windows are resizable and scrollable

  +o  that is not the default window size

  +o  the following things are in development in EbQt, eb-lite, or both:

     +o  smiley :-D support

     +o  support for choosing whether contact names or account handles
        are used in the conversation, and in the titlebar (@hotmail.com
        each time is a little cumbersome)

     +o  support for the (currently greyed-out) buttons for bold, italic,
        etc.

  +o  blip109 is Meredydd, who is writing the eb-lite core, so that was a
     particularly special conversation :-)



  [1m2.  Installation[0m


  If you have already installed EbQt, and it starts successfully, you
  can skip this section.


  [1m2.1.  Requirements[0m



  +o  eb-lite: EbQt requires eb-lite in order to do anything. However,
     the two programs can be on separate machines, as long as there is a
     network connecting them. See the eb-lite website
     <http://www.everybuddy.com/eb-lite/index.php> for instructions for
     downloading eb-lite.

  +o  An operating system suitable for Qt/X11: Linux or something
     similar. See the Qt/X11 page
     <http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/x11.html> for more
     information about compatibility, but as a rule of thumb, if KDE is
     compatible with your machine, then so is EbQt (they both use
     Qt/X11).

  +o  Qt itself (as a shared library), version 3.0.0 or greater. Install
     it using whichever package tool your distribution provides; the
     package will be named libqt, libqt3, libqt-x11, libqt-shared, or
     some other variation on this theme.

  Don't worry about this too much, since if you don't have one of the
  requirements, the configure script will tell you when you try to
  compile EbQt (unless the missing part is eb-lite, in which case you'll
  notice when you type eb-lite and see "command not found").

  See also ``Problems installing EbQt''.



  [1m2.2.  Why are there no binary packages? ( deb s, rpm s, Slackware tgz[0m
  [1ms, etc)[0m



  EbQt is still quite new, so new versions are released very frequently,
  each with many bug-fixes since the last. Any binaries at this stage
  would be out of date (and thus full of [1mknown [22mbugs) as soon as they
  were released, since good binaries take time to prepare and test.  In
  short, EbQt isn't quite ready for people to rely upon it for daily use
  yet. At some point it will be, once both it and eb-lite have become
  more complete and more stable.



  [1m2.3.  Getting the source[0m


  For the moment, the source is only available from CVS (effectively the
  developers' working copy). To retrieve it, open a terminal window and
  type:



       cvs -d:pserver:cvs.everybuddy.com:/var/lib/cvs login



  (press enter at the password prompt)



       cvs -z3 -d:pserver:cvs.everybuddy.com:/var/lib/cvs co eb-lite



  You should then have a directory called eb-lite, with the current eb-
  lite source code (and the ebqt source code inside it).



  [1m2.4.  Compiling the source[0m


  Go into the new directory:



       cd eb-lite



  Compile and install eb-lite. This is a separate operation, and you
  should read the eb-lite documentation for instructions (though it's
  probably similar to what follows in the ebqt directory).

  Go into the ebqt sub-directory:



       cd ebqt



  Run the configure script, which locates the required libraries etc on
  your system:

       ./configure



  This will produce a lot of output, and probably a few seemingly dire
  warnings. As long as the last lines show that various Makefiles have
  been created, everything went well. The Makefiles tell make exactly
  how to compile EbQt on your system. Now type:



       make



  As long as you have eb-lite running somewhere, EbQt doesn't actually
  require any files other than the documentation, so if you can do
  without the ability to click "Help" in EbQt and go straight to it
  (and, since you're already reading this, that's probably true) you
  could stop here and just copy the executable file ebqt to a convenient
  place. This works well if you're not root (in charge) on the machine
  involved, and you only want to use EbQt yourself. To install EbQt so
  that everyone on your machine can use it, read on.

  See also ``Problems installing EbQt''.



  [1m2.5.  Installing ( make install )[0m


  You will need to be the root user (in charge) on the machine to do
  this, since it puts files in places owned by root and accessible to
  all users.  To become root, type:



       su



  and enter the root password when prompted.

  Then make sure you're still in the eb-lite/ebqt directory, and type:



       make install



  If you get some errors containing "permission denied", you're probably
  not root, and you should ask whoever is in charge of the machine
  you're using to install EbQt for you.

  See also ``Problems installing EbQt''.



  [1m3.  Getting started[0m



  [1m3.1.  Start eb-lite[0m


  Just type eb-lite in a terminal window somewhere (you can do this on a
  remote machine). You might want to type screen first, so you can later
  press Ctrl-A and then D to detach from it (and leave eb-lite running
  in the background). You can even log off. Type screen -r to re-attach
  later.

  If you're doing this on a different machine, keep the numbers eb-lite
  displays on startup, you'll need them to connect.



  [1m3.2.  Start EbQt[0m


  EbQt doesn't install any shortcuts yet, you need to type ebqt in a
  terminal, though in most desktop environments you can make your own
  shortcut: the program name (or path, or command) is ebqt, or failing
  that /usr/local/bin/ebqt.

  See also ``Problems starting EbQt''.


  [1m3.3.  Connect to eb-lite[0m



  You should see something like this. Enter the address of the machine
  running eb-lite (if it's the same one running EbQt you can leave it at
  "localhost"), and set the cookie numbers to the ones eb-lite gave when
  it started (reading from left to right from the top). If the two
  programs are on the same machine then they should already be set
  correctly, and you can press "Local cookie" to make sure. Then just
  click Connect. If you're successful, you will be taken to another tab,
  otherwise, the other tabs will remain disabled.

  See also ``Problems connecting to eb-lite''.


  [1m3.4.  Add a local account[0m



  Click the accounts tab to see what accounts you have (if you have
  none, you'll already be there). Click the add button (just above the
  tabs) to add one, and you'll see this dialog:



  The add dialog lets you add more than local accounts, for now you'll
  want to pick a service from the list and enter your handle (username,
  or for some services, your email address, or for IRC, your nickname
  and the server, in the form cmb@irc.openprojects.net). Note that for
  services other than IRC, this must be an account that already exists.
  For some services you can create an account by going to a web page,
  for others you'll need to use that service's supplied software (just
  once).

  You should then be able to click add, and you should see something
  like this:



  [1m3.5.  Sign in[0m


  Once you have a local account, you can sign in. You can click the
  leftmost button of the toolbar to sign in all accounts, or on the
  accounts tab you can just change the status box to something other
  than Offline (there should be something like "Online" or "Available"
  in the choices).

  You can then move on to the "Buddies" tab.


  [1m3.6.  Add some contacts[0m


  If the service is one that keeps your contact list on the server (MSN,
  ICQ, AIM, and several others do), your contact list will be downloaded
  autmatically and you can skip this part. Otherwise, click the add
  button and this time enter something as a group for the contact.
  Notice how you're then allowed to enter a contact to add at the same
  time. If you entered an existing group, you can't click add until the
  contact is one that doesn't exist. The same rules apply to the account
  box, except that you must pick a valid local account to attach the
  account to as well. In short, the add button is enabled once there is
  something new to add.


  [1m3.7.  Talk to someone[0m



  Once you have a contact list, double click a contact (or an account
  under them if you specifically want to use that account) to open a
  conversation window. Then, as with most messaging programs, type in
  the lower box and hit enter (or the Send button). You should see your
  message in the upper box. Hopefully, your contact should respond. You
  just started your first conversation with EbQt! :-)


  [1m3.8.  Getting more help[0m


  If you're not sure what a button does, most of them have tooltips,
  which you'll see if you just hover on them for a couple of seconds
  with the pointer. I've tried to make most error messages descriptive
  enough to indicate what to do next. If in doubt, try the
  ``Troubleshooting'' section.  If all else fails, see ``Contacting the
  authors''.



  [1m4.  Troubleshooting[0m



  [1m4.1.  Problems installing EbQt[0m



     ./configure says something is missing
        The script is generally quite good at telling you what you need
        to install; try looking around your package tool (aptitude or
        dselect on Debian, up2date on Red Hat or Mandrake, or kpackage
        on most distributions, if you have KDE. See also
        ``Requirements''.

     make install says permission denied
        Make sure you are root (your terminal prompt should usually end
        in a hash ("#") character). To become root, type su, and enter
        the root password. If you're not in charge of the machine
        involved, ask the person who is to install EbQt for you.


  [1m4.2.  Problems starting EbQt[0m



     [1mebqt: command not found[0m
        Make sure you installed EbQt. Or, if you're trying to run it
        without installing, you normally need to type ./ebqt (having
        compiled it and gone into eb-lite/ebqt/ebqt). See also
        ``Installation''.

     [1m./ebqt: No such file or directory[0m
        Make sure you compiled EbQt. See also ``Installation''.


  [1m4.3.  Problems connecting to eb-lite[0m



     [1mConnection refused[0m
        eb-lite isn't running at the address you specified. Check that
        you have the right address (including the port number, if you
        specified a custom one when starting eb-lite).


     [1mHost not found[0m
        The address you specified doesn't exist (at least according to
        your DNS server). Either you made a mistake typing the address,
        or you have more general network problems. If you can't reach
        other machines with other programs (e.g. you can't reach any
        websites with your browser), you should ask your ISP or whoever
        is in charge of your network.

     [1mNo route to host[0m
        EbQt can't reach the address you specified. Either your machine
        or the other machine is not connected to the network, or you
        gave the wrong address (the address of somewhere that does
        exist, but is unreachable).

     [1mI clicked Connect and nothing happened. Or, I clicked Connect[0m
        and something flashed and I was back at the connect tab."  This
        might happen when the "cookie" numbers are wrong. Make sure you
        give the same 8 numbers that eb-lite showed when it started,
        reading from left to right, from the top.


  [1m4.4.  Problems with buttons not responding[0m


  This should never happen, if it does, it probably means that either
  EbQt or eb-lite has become confused, or simply doesn't understand a
  particular command it received. Please report the bug to me (Chris
  Boyle, see ``Contacting the authors''), and if possible, copy and
  paste the last few lines from eb-lite and from ebqt into the message
  (run them in two separate terminals).



  [1m4.5.  Some other problem[0m


  If you experience some problem that I haven't dealt with above, you're
  welcome to mail me (Chris Boyle), see ``Contacting the authors''.  Try
  to include as much detail as you think might be relevant.



  [1m5.  Contacting the Authors[0m


  You can email Chris Boyle, the author of EbQt and this manual, at
  cmb@debian.org, or, if there isn't a crippling problem preventing you
  from having a conversation, try one of these:

  +o  MSN: shortcipher@hotmail.com

  +o  AIM: kerneloops

  +o  ICQ: 24151961

  +o  Yahoo: kerneloops

  +o  IRC: cmb on irc.openprojects.net

  If I'm not about, or if you think the problem is to do with the eb-
  lite core rather than EbQt, you might try asking Meredydd Luff, who
  wrote eb-lite. You can mail him at meredydd@everybuddy.com, or use one
  of these:

  +o  MSN: blip109@hotmail.com

  +o  AIM: Blip109

  +o  ICQ: 116976586

  +o  Yahoo: modula7



  [1m6.  Glossary[0m



     [1maccount, handle[0m
        An identity on a service, like someone's ICQ number.

     [1mcontact[0m
        A named set of accounts that lead to the same person.

     [1mcontact list, buddy list[0m
        The list of people whose status you can see, and with whom you
        can have conversations. This list can be stored by the service
        (as in MSN) or only by EveryBuddy (as in IRC). In any case
        EveryBuddy will store your last known contact list, in order to
        have a meaningful contact list available before you sign in to
        any services.

     [1mfriendly name, nickname[0m
        A feature of some services, like MSN, that allows you to set the
        name under which you appear on other people's buddy lists. EbQt
        does not currently show other people's friendly names.

     [1mgroup[0m
        A named set of contacts, grouped in whatever way you want (e.g.
        family, colleagues, EveryBuddy developers)

     [1mgroup chat[0m
        A conversation with several people, usually they don't all need
        to be on your contact list. IRC channels are a good example.

     [1mlocal account[0m
        Your identity on a service, like your ICQ number. For some
        services (where not all available servers are joined together),
        your handle may include a server address, as in
        cmb@irc.openprojects.net. It usually has a password (except for
        IRC), and it may have other settings attached to it: MSN has a
        "friendly name", for example.

     [1mservice[0m
        A provider of instant messaging or chat, like ICQ.

     [1msigning in, signing on[0m
        Telling eb-lite (usually with the first icon on the toolbar) to
        connect to the service and show you as online and available for
        conversations, as opposed to "connecting", which (in this
        manual) means connecting from EbQt to eb-lite.



  [1m7.  Copyright, License and Disclaimers[0m



  EbQt, remote Qt interface for eb-lite (EveryBuddy)
  Copyright (C) 2002-2003 Chris Boyle <cmb@debian.org>

  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
  (at your option) any later version.

  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
  GNU General Public License for more details.

  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
  Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.



