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msn-pecan
Alternative MSN protocol plugin for libpurple
  
  
  
  
    
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Updated Jun 19, 2008 by felipe.contreras
Labels: Featured
FAQ  
Frequently Asked Questions.

Why msn-pecan?

I (Felipe Contreras) am the main author of the MSN protocol plug-in in Pidgin, after working on it for more than 4 years I don't have commit access and probably won't any time soon. It's frustrating not to be able to improve it the way I want it.

A lot of people have contributed over the years, and keep working on it, but I'm the one who re-designed it into the current form and probably knows more about the core stuff, and how to improve it.

So I forked my own code, and I'm very pleased with the results. Everybody's contributions are welcome.

Will it ever be merged?

I've done everything Pidgin guys wanted. Ask them why not.

How do I use it?

See HowToInstall.

What is an alias?

An alias is a "private name"; something you set for your contacts. A nickname is a "public name", and it's different from an alias; it's something your contact sets for himself.

If the displayed name changes constantly it means your contact has changed his nickname. If the display name doesn't change it means you have set an alias; aliases take precedence over nicknames.

You can see both the nickname and the alias in the tool-tip in Pidgin.

My buddy's nickname is not updated

You might have an old alias. Try changing it by right-clicking your buddy and then select Alias, remove all the text so it's empty.

The text displayed should now be the nickname.

How do I change my personal message

There's no concept of personal message in Pidgin, instead, you must use the status messages.

You can try to select a new status at the bottom of the main window, but instead of selecting another status, choose Available again. A field should appear below, where you can enter your new status message.

If you would like this behavior to improve, please vote on issue 51.

The emoticons are different

This is an open issue that needs to be fixed in libpurple, see issue 5.

For now you can try Andrei Neculau's original smileys here.

I have an issue that is not mentioned here

Fill a report on the issue list, please attach the issue with a debug log.

On Linux, simply

pidgin --debug > debug_log.txt

On Windows go to Help, then Debug Window. If it's a crash, then you would have to download the debug version and attach the files created in %TEMP%.


Comment by ian.hawdon, May 27, 2008

I think a link to this page should be kept in the "Issues" session as that is the first place I'd look!

Comment by felipe.contreras, May 29, 2008

Perhaps, but I can't modify that page.

Perhaps I will add some permanent issues if this keeps coming.

Comment by michele.nasti, May 31, 2008

I set up some aliases over windows live messenger; I can see my aliases over all the other msn clients for linux (emesene, aMSN), but with pidgin and your plugin I'm suffering. I can't see the already inserted aliases with your plugin. I can set them, but I don't know if they conflict with the others (If I enter with emesene now, will I see the old alias or the newly set by pidgin?). Can you give me some hints? It seems that I'm the only one to have this problems. Right now I'm going to compile via GIT and see. Thanks for all, Michele (Italy)

Comment by goo...@bercot.org, Jun 06, 2008

Hi, Thank you for this library (personal messages was the most important thing I was waiting for in Pidgin) !!! I have just a litte problem : smileys are not very numerous (less than with purple). It is possible to add some new ones ? Thank you. David.

Comment by goo...@bercot.org, Jun 06, 2008

Hi again, I'm on Debian and I have dependances' problems with msn-pecan. Is there a Debian's version ? Thank you again. David.

Comment by seb.dailly, Jun 11, 2008

For debian, you have to edit the deb file. The deb file is an archive, with another one : control.tar.gz in this one, and in the control replace the line "Depends:" by this one :

Depends: libc6 (>= 2.7), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libpurple0 (>= 2.4.1)

and it should work

Comment by JoaoSobral, Jun 25, 2008

I wish you the best and think that you proceed good in doing this!

Adium in version 1.3b4 will try your MSN Protocol! Bring us voice :D Mac users, like I am, will thank a zillion times!

Comment by stephan.belanger, Jun 30 (5 days ago)

Hi Felipe,

Do you think that it would be possible to add offline messages? It's kind of frustrating to see all other MSN clients offering it but not Pidgin :)

Comment by elektrofrukt, Jul 01 (4 days ago)

Hi, I was just wondering if you have contacted the Funpidgin / Carrier guys. (Carrier was forked from Pidgin by people who were also frustrated with Pidgin's development process). It appears to me they might gladly welcome your efforts on bringing MSN support up to date and it would be great to see your efforts merged.


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