A Brief Introduction to Hotline, and the GTK+ HotlineX Application

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So, you've just installed GtkHx. Now, what exactly can you do with this new 
toy? GtkHx tries very hard to mimic the user experience of Hotline Software's 
Hotline client, most especially the 1.2 versions of this client. Users who are
experienced with Hotline in general will pick it up in no time, much of the 
reason why the interface was designed in the fashion it was.  
---

The Toolbar window:

This window is the most important of them all, and is the "control center" of a
GUI Hotline client. On this window are various buttons, each of which controls 
a primary function of the Hotline client.  

   --- The Connect button: This is quite strait-forward. You press the button,
and are presented with a few options for connecting to a server. Simply enter 
in the domain name or IP of the server, the login and password(If needed, 
otherwise just leave the two fields blank for guest access to the server). A 
quite useful feature of the client, is its ability to store addresses of 
various Hotline servers. Click the "Save" button, then you're presented with 
a prompt for the name of the book-mark. Enter in something which you'll 
remember, and then whenever you click on the arrow pointing downwards, in the 
connection dialog, you'll be given the option to connect to that server 
without having to re-type or remember any details of that server( Address, 
login and password, etc).

   --- Disconnect button: Disconnects you from the server you're currently 
connected to.

   --- Tracker button: Opens the tracker window. What is a tracker? Well a 
tracker is a server, just like a Hotline server, except instead of serving a 
Hotline client in a normal fashion, it serves as a constantly changing listing
of a whole number of Hotline servers. Any Hotline server operator has the 
option of registering himself with one, or perhaps more, trackers. These
trackers keep tabs on the servers, with a brief piece of information on them, 
the current IP address of the tracker, and how many users are logged into the 
server. The tracker is a wonderful tool, most especially for those servers 
with dynamic IPs, whom would otherwise be lost to only the larger servers.
     
      So in the tracker window, you are presented with a typing line above an 
otherwise pretty blank window. First you've got to set a tracker to use( Click
 on the options button, on the tool bar, then enter a Hotline tracker address.
) ( Don't know of a tracker? There are a few web sites which keep tabs on the 
major trackers, one of the more notable is http://www.tracker-tracker.com ) 
Once you have a tracker listing, you can hit the "refresh" button to have the 
list of servers refreshed from the tracker, and you must hit the refresh 
button to display your server listings the first time, as well.( The button 
with a file on it, arrows spinning around in a circle). Once you see a server 
that interests you, simply click on it, then click on the connect button at 
the top of the tracker window. ( The button with 3 circles in a triangle )

  --- Options button: This button brings up the general options dialog box. 
Here you may set your:

      General{

          -user name

          -the tracker you can use

          -if you wish to display private messages behind the rest of 
GtkHx(Very useful if someone is constantly messaging you) (not implemented yet)

          -If you wish to, by default,  "Queue" your file transfers, meaning 
one starts right after the other. This option is, by default,  set to on, as 
most servers love it when the users don't hog the bandwidth, after all, the 
services are free, so try and so some respect :)

          -how you wish colors of the chat background and text to appear, and 
the font size which text is displayed in chat.

            }

       Icon{

          -The user icon which others see you as, on the user list. Currently, 
GtkHx only supports changing this as a number, where the number corresponds to
an actual icon. The default icon is 500, which is displayed on GtkHx as a 
ying-yang, or as the text "UNIX" to most other Hotline clients.
         
          -You may also set the path to an "icon file", or a .rsrc file, which
contains extra icons for hotline. Currently, there are few of these, in .rsrc
format, for use.

           }

       Sound{

          -Here, you may enable or disable all GtkHx sounds. You can also 
select which sounds you want GtkHx to play.

           }

       Misc{

          -Auto reply: Turning this option on, and typing in text in the field
near it, allows GtkHx to respond to a message the second your client gets it. 
Somewhat useful if you want to setup some sort of away or warning message 
system.

           }

    --- News button: This button displays the news window, which shows news 
posts from different users in a non-threaded manner. The paper icon in the 
news window is a shortcut to the "Post News" window, which allows you to post 
messages which other users can read and exchange ideas about. The refresh icon
refreshes the news, and allows you to see new posts.

    --- Post button: This button brings up a window, in which you can type 
items to be posted to the news at the server. 

    --- Files button: This button displays the files on the server. You may 
navigate throughout the files in a macos/windows like manner, double clicking 
the folders to open them, and double clicking on the files to download them.
 
          -The refresh button refreshes the contents of the current directory.

          -The down button downloads an item, the up button will (eventually) 
upload an item

          -The folder button creates a new folder, if you have the proper user
privs

          -The "i" button gets info on a folder or file, telling you what TYPE
of file it is, before downloading, along with some file comments

          -The trash button, naturally, sends the item to the server's 
trashcan, if you have the proper user privs

   --- Users button: This button displays the user window. In the user menu, 
there is a list of every user on the server. Users who are inactive are marked
with a grey name, and users who are admins, are marked with a red name. Every
user can have an icon displayed next to their name, which can be set in the 
options dialog box. Above the user listing is 5 buttons:

         -Button with chat bubble, with a "!" mark in it: This button is 
allows you to private message another user, which can also be done by double 
clicking on their user name, in the user list. Select a user, then click on 
this button, to send them a message privately.

         -Button with a single red slash through it: This kicks, or 
disconnects(without a time period set), a selected user. Only people with the 
proper user privs can kick and otherwise ban users.

         -Button with chat bubble, and a few lines of text in it: This allows
you to create a "private chat" with another user. This acts just as normal 
chat, with the slight difference of the chat title( Which can be set by typing
into the text field above the private chat window, and hitting return ).

         -"i" button: Select a user, click this button, and if you have the 
proper user privs, you will be able to see information on what the user's IP 
address is, what account they are logged in on, and what they are downloading 
and uploading

         -Button with two red slashes through it: Select a user, click on this
button, and they are placed into the server's ban list. This, of course, can 
only be done by users with the proper priveleges. 

   --- Chat button: This button displays the main chat of the server you are 
connected to

   --- Tasks button: This button displays the tasks which GtkHx is doing at 
any given time, such as downloading a file, getting user info, or sending a 
private message. From here, you may cancel any given task by pressing the 
standard red "kill" button, or force-unqueue a download or task, by pressing 
the green "go" light button

   --- About button: Standard application about box :)

   --- Quit Button: Exits the GtkHx application