X-Chat NewsWindow is a perl-based script designed for use with X-Chat that facilitates sharing news within the chat environment.
I recently had the pleasure to try out X-Chat NewsWindow, a perl script designed for X-Chat or X-Chat Aqua that delivers an announcement script to your IRC channel. The script notifies your channel of the currently playing audio track in iTunes, or your current audio or video track in VLC. I have to admit, I have always found this kind of announcement script to be somewhat irritating, but I found X-Chat NewsWindow to be a more effective way to combat the annoyance than simply bashing mIRC users and receiving the standard dismissive response.
One of the benefits of X-Chat NewsWindow is that it is supported by VLC's meta-data. However, the support of meta-data is not perfect, so X-Chat NewsWindow is not always able to obtain the album name from the containing folder, the script will read your current track name from the filename (minus the extension). It works exceptionally well if you have a solidly labeled music collection. This caveat aside, it is important to note that not everyone in the channel will care what you're listening to, so you should exercise discretion when using this script.
If you decide to try out X-Chat NewsWindow, the first step is to enable logging in VLC. You can do so by opening VLC preferences and selecting the "Interface > Control Interfaces" preference page. Then, click the "File Logging" option. Next, on the "Interface > Control Interfaces > Logging" page, enter "/tmp/vlc_log.txt" as the log filename. If you want to choose a different name or location for your log file, you can do so, but make sure to update the path definition in the vlc_announce function. Finally, you may have to select "Add Interface > Debug Logging" from the VLC menu if VLC does not activate it through the preference changes.
Overall, I find X-Chat NewsWindow to be a useful and practical software. It is worth giving this script a try if you use X-Chat or X-Chat Aqua, and especially if you have a well-labeled collection in VLC. Just remember to be mindful of others in the chat before using this announcement script.
One of the benefits of X-Chat NewsWindow is that it is supported by VLC's meta-data. However, the support of meta-data is not perfect, so X-Chat NewsWindow is not always able to obtain the album name from the containing folder, the script will read your current track name from the filename (minus the extension). It works exceptionally well if you have a solidly labeled music collection. This caveat aside, it is important to note that not everyone in the channel will care what you're listening to, so you should exercise discretion when using this script.
If you decide to try out X-Chat NewsWindow, the first step is to enable logging in VLC. You can do so by opening VLC preferences and selecting the "Interface > Control Interfaces" preference page. Then, click the "File Logging" option. Next, on the "Interface > Control Interfaces > Logging" page, enter "/tmp/vlc_log.txt" as the log filename. If you want to choose a different name or location for your log file, you can do so, but make sure to update the path definition in the vlc_announce function. Finally, you may have to select "Add Interface > Debug Logging" from the VLC menu if VLC does not activate it through the preference changes.
Overall, I find X-Chat NewsWindow to be a useful and practical software. It is worth giving this script a try if you use X-Chat or X-Chat Aqua, and especially if you have a well-labeled collection in VLC. Just remember to be mindful of others in the chat before using this announcement script.
What's New
Version 1.0: N/A