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@@ -0,0 +1,387 @@ +23.03.2008: Release 3.4.0 "Virgo" +############################################################################### + +Here we go with another release :) + +This one took a very long time but, well, finally it's here. + +Notable new features of this release include: + + - improved themeing support + - better desktop integration + - nicer support for many different IRC servers + - a totally revised option layout + - basic support for script "addons" + - improved help subsystem + - new nice statusbar applets + - improved scripting engine + - improved windows and macosx support + - .... + +There is also a lot of small new details that you will +find out by yourself while playing around and finally +we obviously also have a huge number of bugfixes. + +This will be the last stable release of the 3.* series and also the last +one using Qt3. From now on we'll be working on major version 4 and +switching completly to Qt4. This release actually contains a preliminary +Qt4 support and if you feel brave you might test it by passing +the "hidden" --enable-qt swtich to configure. + +Have fun :) +Szymon Stefanek and The KVIrc Development Team + + + + + + +############################################################################### +General notes for the 3.4.0 release of the KVIrc IRC client +############################################################################### + +- Installation + +The detailed installation instructions for the unix source distribution +are in the INSTALL file. + +The Windows version needs no installation: you just need to run the +installer executable and follow the proposed steps. + +Other documentation can be found in the doc subdirectory. + +- Reporting problems + +You are encouraged to "mess" with all the KVIrc options and features, +and to report bugs and misbehaviours to the author. +Anyway , before reporting a bug , ask yourself if it can be caused +by some other part of your system: KVIrc uses many external libraries +and (as all programs) relies on a correct system behaviour. +Make sure that the libraries you use are the correct ones (!!!). + +When you encounter a problem please read the FAQ that is found +in the distribution and also take a look at http://www.kvirc.net +for a more recent version. If nothing helps to solve your problem +then you might consider issuing a bug report. + +The best way to report a bug is to use the bugtrack system at +http://svn.kvirc.de/kvirc/. Another way is to subscribe +to the kvirc mailing list (see http://www.kvirc.net for instructions) +and report the problem there. In both cases your bug report +should be written in english and should contain most informations +possible about the problem. If you have encountered a crash +on an unix platform you should include a gdb backtrace (stack dump). +The more gdb info you send, the biggest is the possibility for us +to find the problem and maybe a solution. There is a FAQ entry +that explains how to produce a suitable gdb backtrace. +If you can't obtain a gdb backtrace (maybe because you're on +a platform where gdb is not available) or if the problem +is not related to a program crash then you should include +a detailed procedure that leads to the manifestation of your problem. +You should always include a short description of the platform you +are running on: the operating system, the cpu (if not an x86), +the version of the Qt library and the KDE environment (if relevant). +You should also mention the relevant version of KVIrc and where +you got it from (cvs, kvirc site, other sites). + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +############################################################################### +# Historic entries : just for the curious +############################################################################### + + +22.02.2005: Release 3.2.0 "Realia" +############################################################################### + +Here we go again: 3.2.0 is out! + +The long road to stability has reached an important milestone. The previous +releases of the 3.* series were the first ones after a huge codebase rewrite. +3.2.0 is a result of several months of testing, debugging and improving. +You will surely find it more stable, fast and user friendly. + +The old scripting toolbars have been replaced by the new "action" based +approach. Besides the scripting flexibility of the actions we have also +gained "drag & drop" toolbar editing. Just select "Settings -> Toolbars +-> Customize" from the menu and drag your favorite actions (buttons!) to the +toolbars you wish. You can obviously create new toolbars on the fly and destroy +old ones. There is a set of builtin actions and new ones can be added +by the means of the action editor (another new feature) accessible from +the Scripting menu. Play with it :) + +The UNICODE support has been improved yet more. Now you can set global, +per-network, per-server and per-window encodings! There is also a new +set of "smart" encoding engines that first try to decode the text as UTF8 +and in case of failure fallback to your standard encoding. + +The translators did a really good (and hard) job: we actually have KVIrc +translated in 14 languages. I'm really happy about that. + +There is a new nice Instant-Messager-like notifier window that pops up when +a query message arrives and KVIrc is not the active application. Yes, +you can disable it, but I'm sure you will not. The notifier is also fully +scriptable and we're working on a simple skinning engine for it. + +We also have perl support: now you can use perl from KVS and +KVS from perl. The engine is still quite essential but with some hacking +you can obtain really good results from it. + +The small IRC-Context-Display has been removed from the toolbar and has been +replaced by a real status bar that is capable of displaying the same +informations in a much cleaner way. The IRC-Context-Display is still +available as an action so you can just drag it back in its place +and hide the status bar to return to the previous release configuration. +The statusbar also supports applets that can be added/dragged/removed by the +means of the mouse: just try the right click. + +The scripting engine has been improved and there are several new object +classes. An interesting new feature here is the $tr() function that allows +your scripts to be translated with the standard gettext mechanism. The +widely requested DCOP communication function has been implemented too. + +Out-of-the-box mircryption support has been added. The KVIrc's mircryption +engine supports the standard ECB mode and the new CBC mode + +The DCC transfers have been improved and seveal related bugs have been +fixed. It is also possible to limit the bandwidth for each transfer. + +There is a lot of minor new features that will make your IRC sessions funnier +and more exciting: some of them are described in the ChangeLog file and +other can be found by exploring the user interface. + +The small one-man-project has grown to the level of a small community. +People from around the world have joined our development efforts and are +constantly donating their time, eyes and bandwidth in order to make KVIrc +a really good IRC client. Besides of simply giving you a free (as in freedom!) +and nice program for chatting, they are giving you the great opportunity to see +what's behind the scenes: you have the source code for the whole application. +In practical terms this means more or less 300.000 lines of tested, debugged and +commented C++ code, several perl scripts, dozens of makefiles and all the means +that you need to produce a working KVIrc executable on all the supported platforms. +There is a lot of knowledge (some people call it "technology" because it sells better) +inside, ready to be acquired by an attentive reader. Don't forget that the freedom of +building your own executable from the sources gives you the opportunity +of verifying the source itself: for example you might be interested in verifying +that KVIrc will not run any malware code on your machine nor will collect +your private data and sell it to someone while you're happily chatting with a friend. +We call it freedom, please respect it :) + +Our community is contantly growing and this release was possible thanks to the +contribution of really many people. There are new mighty developers, new addicted +fans and we have seen a lot of new users. The list of the major contributors +can be found on the KVIrc site, in the about dialog and all around the sources. +If you want to meet them please join the #kvirc channel on your favorite +IRC network or subscribe to our mailing list. + +Ah, I was going to forget it: you might have noticed that there is +a version bump from 3.0.1 to 3.2.0. It's a typo that we arbitrairly +decided not to fix :) + +Have fun :) +Szymon Stefanek and The KVIrc Development Team + + + + +31.05.2004: Release 3.0.1 "System Virtue" +############################################################################### + +Here we go again: 3.0.1 is out! + +3.0.1 is mainly a bugfix release. 3.0.0 was the first public release +after long time and even if we have tested it for a very long time +some bugs didn't miss to jump out. 3.0.1 contains the fixes for these +problems and adds some minor functionality. The detailed list of +changes is in the ChangeLog file. + +The bugs for this release should be reported by using the bugtrack system available +at http://bugtrack.kvirc.omnikron.net + +Have fun :) +Szymon Stefanek and The KVIrc Development Team + + +17.04.2004: Release 3.0.0 "Awakening" +############################################################################### + +After a couple of years from the last stable release, here we go again :) + +Since the 2.* releases the KVIrc source code has been almost completely +rewritten. The major differences are summarized in the following list: + + - Multiserver: you can have multiple IRC connections in a single window + - IPV6 support, also for DCC transfers + - SSL support (also over IPV6) + - UNICODE support for the user interface + - Better scripting language + - A basic Theme Engine + +The first major goal of the rewrite was "user-friendliness": you should be +able to start an IRC session by selecting a server and clicking "Connect Now" +just after the installation. +The second major goal was "extreme-flexibility": you can customize the way KVIrc +looks and the scripting language allows you to implement complex responses +to IRC generated events. + +There is a lot of minor new features that will make your IRC sessions funnier +and more exciting: some of them are described in the ChangeLog file and +other can be found by exploring the user interface. + +This release was possible thanks to the contribution of many people. +The list includes but is not limited to: Triskelios, Jan Wagner (spion), +Juanjo Alvarez (Kane), Andrea Parrella (Yap), Luk De Ketelaere (Balboy), +Sara D'Alia (Sbrokka), Ted Podgurski (alch3m1st), Ciro Guariglia (d3vah), +Christoph Thielecke (Crissi), Eva Schaller (Penny), Niklas Luerßen (Tequila) +Olle Hallnas (Crocodile), Francesco Meloni (Princo), Alessandro Rossini (Aronnax), +Alex Grijalba Martinez (SuD), SuperbepS, Thilo Schulz (Thilo), Dworf, +Jorma Tuomainen (Wiza), Michele Pinassi (O-Zone), Paolo Sammicheli (XDatap1), +Ahinu, xevilstar, The Siena Linux Users Group, cyco & samweis, +The Firenze Linux Users Group, all the subscribers of the KVIrc public mailing +list and finally all the people from #kvirc on IRCNet and Freenode. + +Have fun :) +Szymon Stefanek and The KVIrc Development Team + +############################################################################### +General notes for the 3.0.0 release of the KVIrc IRC client +############################################################################### + +- Installation + +The detailed installation instructions for the unix source distribution +are in the INSTALL file. + +The Windows version needs no installation: just unzip the archive in +a suitable directory (such as C:\Program Files\) and run kvirc.exe from there. + +Other documentation can be found in the doc subdirectory. + +- Reporting problems + +In this release , the changes are so huge that it was not possible +to test them in all the possible conditions. A 'normal' irc session +should give you no problems. +You are encouraged to "mess" with all the KVIrc options and features, +and to report bugs and misbehaviours to the author. +Anyway , before reporting a bug , ask yourself if it can be caused +by some other part of your system: KVIrc uses many external libraries +and (as all programs) relies on a correct system behaviour. +Make sure that the libraries you use are the correct ones (!!!). + +- Contents of a good bug report: + +- A gdb backtrace in case of a segfault. + The more gdb info you send , the biggest is the possibility + for me to find the problem and maybe a solution. +- A detailed description (read : procedure) to reproduce the bug + Obviously if possible... +- All informations on your system that you think that may be + related to KVIrc and to the problem itself. + +To enable the gdb debugging you must compile kvirc with +the --enable-debug configure option. + + + +03.01.2003: Release 3.0.0 beta2 +############################################################################### + + +Here we go again! +Yes , this is still called "beta" , but it should be stable on most machines. +We're simply still missing some features planned for the final 3.0.0. + +Beta2 is being released as a source package. +Binary packages (for windows and other platforms) might be available soon +so check out the download section once in a while. + +90% of the 2.* branch features have been already re-implemented and there are +many new things to play with. + +There is a preliminary UNICODE port: KVIrc UI starts to "speak" foreign (non Latin1) based languages. +IRC character set mapping has been implemented (with 8 commonly used codepages for now). +You should be able to use the Euro sign (ISO-8859-15), write Cyrillic (KOI-8-R , CP-1251 , ISO-8859-5), +Greek (ISO-8859-7) and even use ideograms with the UTF-8 encoding. +Character mapping selection is window based thus you should be able to write Cyrillic on #russian, +Greek on #athens and write plain English on #kvirc in the same IRC session. + +Some modules have been removed from the main distribution. This is because the source +tree has been growing too much: we are removing the non-strictly-necessary features +and we will release them as separate packages. + +On the CVS you can already find the "nap" module that allows chatting (no file sharing yet) +on OpenNap networks. + +The scriptcenter dialog has been splitted in smaller "pieces" and a GUI toolbar editor has been added. + +Finally there are tons of bugfixes and improvements: just play with it :) + +The bugs for this release should be reported by using the bugtrack system available +at http://bugtrack.kvirc.omnikron.net. + +Have fun :) +Szymon Stefanek and The KVIrc Development Team + +############################################################################### + + + +25.06.2002 +############################################################################### + +3.0.0 beta1 (Codename: "Eve's Avatar") + +This release is "floating around" since a couple of months... +Well... finally... here we go :) +This is not stable yet, but many people use it and we get a really small number of +critical reports: this means that you probably can use it for your daily chatting. + +Beta1 is being released as a source package and a binary distro for the windows platform. +Binary packages for other platforms might be available soon so check out the download section once in a while. + +If you had previous KVIrc installations and you experience problems (missing menus for example) +try to remove (or better just rename) the old local configuration directory (locaed +in your home dir probably) and to restart KVIrc. + +80% of the 2.* branch features have been already re-implemented and there is a whole +bunch of new things to play with. One of the greates "ChangeLog" entries is the preliminary +SSL support that works for IRC and DCC CHAT (both over IPv4 and IPv6). +CTCP PAGE support has been added and there were some major changes to the variable +management in the scripting language (added "real" array support and changed the syntax for the dictionaries). +Those of you that like colors can now enable the icon-like display of emoticons +and play with icons in the text sent through the server (a new escape code). +The documentation has been reworked a little bit more, there are some new modules and +a lot of new options to try. + +The windows version is not completely in sync with the linux one thus you might find +that it lacks some features (mainly advanced scripting language, sound support etc...). +We hope to have a completely synchronized versions on both platforms for the time +of 3.0.0 final. + +The bugs for this release should be reported by using our new shiny bugtrack system available +at http://bugtrack.kvirc.omnikron.net. + +Well.. +That's all folks! + +Have fun :) +Szymon Stefanek and The KVIrc Development Team + +############################################################################### + |