Software > IRC >

www.qnext.com

An IRC client.

Had issues, the biggest of which was constant window redrawing.

2009-04-08 - (version not recorded) ∞

they don't list versions?

I'm bracing myself for this one. It's Java. Every Java app has been - at it's very BEST - pretty and bloated. On average Java apps are so hopeless.. so hopeless that. Uh, I think I'm running out of comedy here. I've been at this for hours and hours.

• Distributed as a binary, or whatever it's equivalent is (some kind of compiled jar)
• Slow startup, as expected
• Umm, I need a qnext account? What the heck. Well since it's done through the client I won't be too bothered. Let's proceed. Oh, for future reference, there doesn't seem to be email validation.
• Oh wonderful, it has issues painting its window. Much of it is blank unless I drag it off and then back on the screen. Even then, it's not working right.
• Oh, I can smell the fail. I alt-tabbed back and it looked ok again. Mind you, I did it just now and it's crap again. Well anyways, while it was working I looked through all the "features" and I haven't a clue how to get IRC going.
• Their website said they could do it, and it referenced the documentation.. but they were too dumb to give a direct link, so I had to search for it myself: help.qnext.com/topics/using_qnext_irc/
• It said "To use Qnext IRC Plug-In you can access the IRC network through the Plug-Ins link in the Tools Menu.", but there's no menu.
• I toggled it into compact mode, and it seems to get rid of the screen paint issues.
• Well, I took a serious look through their documentation. I even saw screenshots that were familiar, so I think I have the same program they documented. But wherever this magical "menu" is, it's nowhere a human can find. Left-clicking and right-clicking on anything I can see .. does nothing.
• Oh oh oh, I found it! There's a tiny little white triangle pointing down. Clicking that gives one of those awkward menus you have to tunnel through.
• Setting it up seemed fairly easy.
• Ignores the list of commands I said it should perform on connect. Fail.
• Can't paste anything from xterm into the chat area. This is a show-stopper right here. I don't want to have to bother connecting clipboards together, although I've done that research before.

• Doesn't allow control-tab to go between channels.

Ok, let's just stop this game right here. It's repainting issue is just pathetic. I don't want to deal with this nonsense. It seems ok, but some stuff is just hideous. I'm also positive that in the long run this client would have big fat memory leaks chewing up resources like a fat kid on a marshmallow.