

Show HN: Convos, a OSS persistent IRC web client built using Mojo and Redis - marcusramberg
http://convos.by

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EvanDotPro
I suppose it's only a matter of time before one of these persistent web
clients / services converts me, but my current setup works surprisingly well:

\- Irssi + screen on my server.

\- IrssiNotifier [1] for push notifications to my Android phone when I'm
hilighted/PM'd.

\- Connect from my phone using Irssi ConnectBot [2], which is just an SSH
client that supports gestures for interacting with Irssi (swipe left/right to
switch channels, double tap to go to a hilight, swipe up/down to scroll the
channel log, etc).

\- Connection via mosh [3] instead of plain SSH. Mosh uses UDP, which allows
persistent connections when switching from Wi-Fi to cellular data, or when
data connections are spotty, etc. On my phone, I actually use a patched
version of Irssi ConnectBot [4] which supports mosh.

That said, as well as this works, I've always kept an envious eye on browser-
based implementations like this. I love thinking about all the fun
integrations that would be possible to make IRC a much more rich experience:
automatically showing YouTube thumbnails/descriptions, expanding shortened
links, hover-to-show image links, etc.

[1]:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fi.iki.murgo.i...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fi.iki.murgo.irssinotifier&hl=en)
[2]:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.woltage.ir...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.woltage.irssiconnectbot&hl=en)
[3]: [http://mosh.mit.edu/](http://mosh.mit.edu/) [4]:
[http://dan.drown.org/android/mosh/](http://dan.drown.org/android/mosh/)

~~~
TheCraiggers
I might give that setup a shot. I've been using ZNC + AndChat for awhile, but
some of the warts in it are starting to really annoy me; namely it's multiple-
server functionality.

I typically dislike having to run things in screen though. It's not that
bloody hard to create a daemon in linux.

~~~
laumars
It wouldn't make sense to run irssi as a daemon though as it's got a proper UI
to it (not sure if it's written in ncurses or not, but it's that sort of
thing). So this is the type of set up that screen is ideal for.

I agree about the annoyances of AndChat though - and specifically the
multiple-server implementation thing you mentioned. Personally I still prefer
that to running screen+irssi on a touch screen phone (I used to run that set
up back when I had the Google G1 / HTC Dream - but personally I don't enjoy
using irssi on a touch screen)

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cjstewart88
I had fun a year or so ago messing around with a web based IRC client. I never
got around to adding bouncer like functionality or a few other key pieces that
would make it my everyday IRC client. A few key pieces lacking in my project
are: auto complete nicks, auto reconnect when connection is lost, etc. But it
was fun and thats why I did it, cool project and good luck keeping it going!

My project is in node.js:
[https://github.com/cjstewart88/nirc](https://github.com/cjstewart88/nirc)

~~~
jhthorsen
Convos has auto complete for commands and nicks, and the auto reconnect
_should_ work, though I think it's hard making good tests for it.

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Lazare
So... an open-source, self-hosted version of IRCCloud, with the server written
in Perl?

I'm a bit too happy with IRCCloud to switch, so I'm not really in the target
audience. Still, I don't run across Perl projects too often these days; nice
to see some variety. :)

~~~
jhthorsen
Got any killer features that we should add to Convos?

~~~
Lazare
1\. A publically available demo/sandbox, so people who are curious but lazy
can take it for a spin.

2\. Native mobile clients.

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Aaronneyer
Nice! I had been thinking about making something similar. There are very few
quality web IRC clients out there. I had a chromebook for a while, and I was
stuck using Mibbit which is pretty terrible.

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dhamidi
I didn't know that Mojolicious supports hot deployment...thanks for linking to
the deployment guide!

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glomph
See also kiwiric. ALthough they have yet to to deliver on persistence.

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kayoone
last time i worked with Perl was 2007, but Mojolicious looks awesome!

