[jdev] Usage

[Daniel Henninger]

>> So what I propose is thinking through a stanza to indicate "how do I use
>> you?".  I haven't looked in details at anything yet, but the idea might
>> be
>> something like:
>> <message to="aim.jabber.vorpalcloud.org"
>> from="daniel at jabber.vorpalcloud.org"><usage /></message>
>
> Why not just use a normal message send after registering? Or do you want
> to send this every time you use it?

I was thinking more of a client extension then something like this.  Yes,
I could send it once the user registers, but that means if the user
doesn't read and remember, or doesn't write it down, they're not going to
know how to use the groupchat stuff unless it occurs to them to go hunting
the web for instructions.  (or their friendly local admin put up usage
instructions)  Basically, I brought this whole thing up because I believe
it would be a good extension for the end user, not us programmer types. ;)
 If I registered with my AIM transport, for example, I doubt I'd be diving
into a chatroom immediately.  Month passes, a friend wants me to join a
chatroom, now I'm sitting here going "well crap, how do I use this?". 
Using message for this above was just a silly example to indicate that
it's a usage request and then an answer.  Another person (my apologies for
not remembering your name at this time) had some good suggestions about
what mechanisms to use for such a thing.  (ie: not message)


>> <message from="aim.jabber.vorpalcloud.org"
>> to="daniel at jabber.vorpalcloud.org"><usage>After registering with this
>> transport, you may communicate through Jabber to users on AIM.  Please
>> note that some screen names have spaces in them in a real AIM client,
>> but
>> through this transport, there are no spaces.  As for group chat, prefix
>> the name of the chat room with a pound (#) symbol and, if there are any
>> spaces in the name, replace them with underscores (_).  For further
>> assistance, please see the online documentation at
>> http://pyaim-t.jabberstudio.org/usage.php.</usage></message>
>
> These problems all look solvable. JID's are allowed to have spaces in
> them, so you could map jids with spaces to a non-spaces AIM screen name.
> You can also have the transport add the # and replace spaces with _ for
> groupchat. It might be some extra work for you, yes ;)


Yes, and I have already done this, but I'm not thinking about me, I'm
thinking about the end user.  How are they to read my mind and know that I
change spaces to _'s, or put a # in front?  Basically, I've already solved
the problem for myself, but I believe it would be nice to have a way to
relay this information to the end-user.

Daniel