############### BCChat - a broadcast chat application ###############
############### Copyright (C) 2010 Fabian Lesniak <f.lesniak@gmx.de> ###############

BCChat is developed with the aim to create a chat application which can be run on any network
without the need of installing a server or having an internet connection.

You received version 2.1. All prior versions were not released to public because of their
development state. Moreover, these versions are all hardcoded german. If you want to receive
such a version anyway, feel free to contact me.

I hope you're having fun with this piece of software :)

FEATURES:
- multi-platform support: Use Linux, Mac OS or Windows machines in the exact same matter
- UTF-8 encoded strings: Feel free to use special characters
- See who's online: A list of chat buddies alway gives you an hint of who's listening
- Automatic nickname creation: nicknames are created from the current user and host name
- Change the default port (54545) to whatever you want
- Localization support: currently, only english and german language is supported. If you like,
  you may translate BCChat into your own language and I'll add your file to the next release.
- Useful for debugging and in some other cases: enable a spam-mode to sent each packet x times
  While developing, I experienced that it's possible to work around the windows firewall this
  way sometimes :D

TODO / PLANNED FEATURES:
- private chats with single clients
- file transmission (only to single clients first)
- encryption for the security paranoid people out there :)

CHANGELOG 2.1:
- dropped broadcasting, so app's name is now inappropriate, only "hello" packets are still broadcasts
- formatting: write bold, italic or underlined Text; this was the first step to colored text and/or smileys
- clients list is now ListWidget instead of TextEdit, also first step onwards private chats
- dropped spammode (was just a testing feature)
- code cleanup

############### COMPILING ###############

This application should just depend on QT4, to compile you have to obtain the QT4 development
package of your distribution or get them elsewhere. CMake is used as the makefile creator. You
need a build environment set up for the use with CMake.

Tasks to compile on Linux:

cmake .
make

You may move the executable into your path or execute it directly from the sources.
I have not yet looked at install parameters for cmake, maybe I'll do so later.

I will try to supply Windows builds first of all, because compiling under windows isn't quite
as easy as under Linux. Perhaps I'll add some rpm/deb packages or register at OBS.

If you want to add a new translation, add a .ts file in CMakeLists.txt, for example "es.ts".
Then run cmake following way:
cmake -D UPDATE_TRANSLATIONS:BOOL=ON .
Now, when you run make, your new es.ts, or whatever, is created and you can translate it with
for example Qt Linguist.

############### LICENSE INFORMATION (see gpl.txt) ###############

BCChat is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

BCChat is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with BCChat.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
