Q: What is Amsn?
A: Amsn is a Microsoft Messenger clone. It allows you to keep in touch with
your friends and exchange instant messages and files.

INSTALLING AND RUNING
=====================

Q: What do I need to run amsn?
A: Amsn is written in tcl/tk, so you just need a working tcl/tk interpreter,
version 8.3 or later. You can get it at http://tcl.sourceforge.net. The
interpreter is available for linux, windows and macintosh.

Q: How do I create a shortcut to amsn on my desktop?
A: 1.- Add an icon to your gnome/kde desktop or menu, that
launches the command:
/wherever/you/have/amsn/installed/amsn
 for example
 /home/yourusername/msn/amsn
 2. Other way:
 As root, create a link in /usr/bin to the amsn file
 ln -s /wherever/you/have/amsn/installed/amsn amsn
 This way, you can launch amsn by just typing 'amsn' from
anywhere.
 Then add an icon that launchs the command 'amsn'.

Q: How do I get the Gnome docking to work?
A: You have to run 'make' inside the plugins directory, to build
the gnome plugin. You'll need gnome development libraries. When
the plugin is built, just run amsn and select Gnome Docking in the
options menu.

USING IT
========

Q: What do the magenta contacts in my contact list mean?
A: It means that you are not in that person's contact list.

Q: When I leave the amsn window in the background, and work in other windows,
after a certain time my status changes to away. Is this a bug?
A: No, it is working fine. Amsn detects key presses and mouse clicks INSIDE the
amsn or chat windows. If you work in other windows but don't use amsn, and the
auto-idle feature is enabled, your state will be changed after 5 minutes.

TROUBLESHOOTING
===============

Q: Sometimes amsn "hangs", why?
A: When amsn hangs it's usually a problem with the sound configuration. Maybe
you're playing a sound but the sound card is blocked, and the play command
stops until the sound card is available. Try disabling sound or changing the
sound command configuration.

Q: I try to run amsn but I get this error:
bash: ./amsn: bad interpreter: No such file or directory
A: you need to install the tcl/tk packages, because you need the wish
interpreter. If you think you have it, try "wish amsn" instead of "./amsn". If
this works, edit amsn and change the first line:
 #!/usr/bin/wish
 with the location of the wish interpreter.

Q: When I run amsn i get this error:
Error in startup script: bad option "map": must be
compare, first, index, last, length, match, range,
tolower, toupper, trim, trimleft, trimright, wordend,
or wordstart
while executing
"string map $map $md5body"
(in namespace eval "::md5" script line 65)
invoked from within
"namespace eval ::md5 { ... etc
A: You're using a version of tcl/tk that is older than 8.3. Update tcl/tk.

Q: After updating amsn, this is what i get when I run it:
Error in startup script: expected integer but got ""
while executing
"font create menufont -family $family -size $size
-weight normal"
(procedure "::amsn::initLook" line 5)
invoked from within
"::amsn::initLook $family $size $config(backgroundcolor)"
(file "amsn" line 2184)
A: There have been some changes in the configuration file. A quick fix to have
the new version working is to delete the old config file in your home dir.
Delete /home/yourusername/.amsn/config and it should work now.

Q: Can't type chinese / japanese / other languages in amsn. What can I do?
A: It looks like xcin or similar programs are not supported in the current
version of tcl/tk, so amsn doesn't work with them either. You should wait for
next version of tcl/tk and hope it supports xcin. Meanwhile, you can type the
text in another editor, and copy-paste it into the chat window .
New:Internationalization copy and paste. If you have problems pasting characters
in to AMSN, download and install this version of Tcl/Tk from this site:
http://jfontain.free.fr/tcl-8.4a3-2.i386.rpm
http://jfontain.free.fr/tk-8.4a3-2.i386.rpm
http://jfontain.free.fr/tcl-thread-8.4a3-2.i386.rpm
Please note that this could be a work around in case
you can't type your language directly in to AMSN, for
example Traditional Chinese using xcin.

Q: Can I use AMSN behind a proxy server?
A: As of the developpement version right after 0.61, HTTP proxy support is
available. This means that you can only connect behind an HTTP proxy (such as
squid for example). If your proxy server is socks5 then you will not be able
to connect yet, but socks5 support is on the way.

Q: I am behind an HTTP proxy but I still can't connect!
A: AMSN uses the CONNECT flag through the HTTP proxy. You have to make sure
your proxy allows this type of connection (SSL). Ask your administrator to
allow SSL connections through the CONNECT request.

Q: Amsn looks connected, but when I try to chat with someone or change my state
I get disconnected. This happens often, after some minutes of inactiviry.
Probably I'm behind a router or firewall.
A: Try enabling "Keepalive (NAT)" in the tools->options menu. It's a fix for
shared internet connections that keeps sending a dummy packet to the server
every 2 minutes, to keep the connection alive.

WINDOWS ISSUES
==============

Q: Can I make the sound work under windows?
A: Yes, we have a small program called plwav.exe that just plays a wav under
windows. You can use it as sound command (amsn needs some external program
to play sounds). Go to the options->preferences->sound menu and enter "plwav"
as sound command.

Q: When notify window pops up, the windows taskbar partially hides it, can I
fix this?
A: Yes, you can move the notify window X pixels to the left and Y pixels to 
the top. To do this you can do one of this two thing:
1) Edit amsn config file, and change the lines:
notifyYoffset yy
notifyXoffset xx
where yy and xx are the values in pixels you want to move the window in the x
and y axis. You have to restart amsn after the modification.
2) Other way. Press Ctrl+S in the contact list window. You'll get a window
called status log. You can enter commands at the bottom of that window. Enter
the following command:
global config; set config(notifyXoffset) xx; set config(notifyYoffset) yy
where xx and yy are the x and y axis offset. You don't have to restart amsn
to test the changes. You can even get a test notify window by entering the
next command:
::amsn::notifyAdd Testing {}

OTHER
=====

Q: I have another question, can you help me?
A: Yes, we can. But first, take a look at the sourceforge project page, located
at http://sourceforge.net/projects/amsn, and check all the bugs, support
request and general forums to check if your problem is already answered. Don't
check only the messages marked as "Open". There's a drop down list where you
can select "Closed" at the top of the messages list. Already answered question
are usually marked as Closed. 
Before submitting a bug or asking for support, get the following information:
- Amsn version.
- Tcl and Tk version.
- Stack trace of the submited error (if applicable).
If you still have a question, you can mail me at
airadier@users.sourceforge.net.
