The first alpha release of the Pidgin 3.0 (2.95) instant messaging client has been announced. The release is marked as not ready for everyday use. Builds are prepared in Flatpak format and are available in the beta repository on Flathub.
The Pidgin 3 branch has been in development since 2011, following three additional years of discussion at the concept and ideas level. Pidgin 3 transitions to the GObject type system, GTK4 libraries, and Adwaita, uses the Meson build system, GPlugin for plugin handling, SQLite for chat history storage, and GSettings for managing settings. The API has been completely redesigned. GTK Builder XML is used to define interface elements, and a custom Talkatu widget library has been created for displaying chat history.
In the Pidgin 3 interface, the contact list and chat are combined into one window. The delivery of the console client Finch has been discontinued (it may be reinstated in the future). Currently, implementations are being developed for the protocols IRCv3, XMPP, SIP, Demo, Bonjour, and Zulip. The Pidgin 3 branch is incompatible with Pidgin 2 and plugins created earlier, but can be installed alongside existing Pidgin 2 builds.
Among the changes in the presented test release:
- The API for protocols has been declared stable enough to begin work on implementations of additional protocols for Pidgin 3, without concerns of making significant changes to the API.
- A new AccountSettings API has been proposed for managing account settings, which supports use in wrappers that allow creating plugins with protocol implementations in scripting languages such as Python and Lua. The AccountSettings API also does not require mandatory username usage for each account, allowing, for example, nicknames to be requested instead of names for protocols like IRC.
- A separate interface has been implemented for editing account parameters, which lists all relevant settings in one place.
- A plugin with initial support for the Zulip messaging platform protocol has been added.
- An option has been added to enable developer mode, which makes unfinished experimental features available, such as incomplete plugins for protocols.
- The libxml2 library has been removed from dependencies, and instead of storing configuration in XML format, SQLite is now used.
At the same time, the developers of the Pidgin project announced the Gaim 3 messenger. In 2007, Gaim was renamed to Pidgin due to claims from AOL, which developed the AIM messenger. In 2017, AIM ceased to exist, and the trademark has now expired, so the developers decided to use the old name to realize the idea of creating a chat client with a classic interface in the style of Pidgin 2/Gaim, built on GTK4, and featuring messenger functionality based on the libpurple 3 library, which is being developed for Pidgin 3.
Gaim 3 will allow connections to all networks supported in libpurple 3, but will use an interface focused on direct messaging, instead of the chat room-based interface developed in Pidgin 3. The development of Gaim 3 is in its early stages. Builds are planned for Linux, Windows, and macOS.
Source: opennet.ru
