Category Image Coccinella and Google Talk


As you may already know, Google recently announced their Google Talk Jabber-based instant messaging service. Although I think Gtalk would be a better name, I do like the fact that their instant messaging service is Jabber-based. Unlike AIM, in which your screenname and password are transmitted in plain text across the network, Google Talk supports secure SSL connections. Although it is currently not supported by Google Talk, it's possible that transports to other IM services may be provided in the future. The public Jabber server jabber.org.uk, for example, supports transports to Yahoo! and MSN. At any rate, Google also released a Google Talk client for Windows, and provides a list of thrid-party clients capable of using the Google Talk service. Google even provides tutorials on how to use these third-party clients with their IM service. One client that they missed, however, is the open source, cross-platform, and Jabber-based chat client Coccinella, now at version 0.95.9. One of Coccinella's distinguishing features is its whiteboard support and plug-in architecture. The whiteboard feature makes it especially interesting to me as I look for ways to expand my use of IM in teaching.

It took more a little more time than I care to admit to configure Coccinella on Mac OS X to use Google Talk. After playing with some of the settings, I hit on the right combination. Subsequently, I found pretty clear instructions on how to set up Coccinella for Google Talk on the Coccinella web site. At any rate, to see how to do it on Mac OS X, read more:

One you start the Coccinella application, in the menu bar select File --> Preferences... to open the Preferences window. In the Preferences window, select User Profiles under Jabber in the left column. Then in the right part of the window, click New just to the right of Profile (which probably has jabber.org as the default). This will bring up the following window.



A reasonable choice for the Profile Name is GoogleTalk, but you can choose whatever you'd like. Click OK, and fill in the information as show in next figure. Specifically, the jabber server should be gmail.com, and your username should be entered without the @gmail.com. So, if your Gmail account is username@gmail.com, then you should enter only username next to username. The password is the same one that you use for your Gmail account, and the "Scramble password" item should be unselected, as shown below.


Next, click the Connection tab, and enter talk.google.com for the IP address, 5223 for the Port, and check only the "Use SSL for security" item. Leave the SASL authentication method unselected.


Click on the Save button, and you'll be ready to log in.

I can confirm that the whiteboard feature works with Google Talk using Coccinella 0.95.9 on Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4.2). On the other hand, I haven't quite figured out how to use some of the Mathematical symbols in the whiteboard. I know that both parties need to have the Mathematica fonts installed, and these fonts are available here. I have the feeling that it's really simple, but I just haven't seen how to bring up a palette or menu of mathematical symbols to include in the whiteboard. I did manage to use the drawing tools, however.

Posted: Sunday - September 04, 2005 at 12:38 PM        

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