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minitalk

This is the first working of a small chat program I wrote at the request of a coworker.

They had a very specific use case. Instead of being able to configure a standard chat system (I had ircd ready to go...) they ended up having to "chat" using a single file on a shared remote Linux server. They had two terminals open: one with a cat >> file for sending messages, another with tail -f file for receiving messages. Their primary complaint was having to use two windows, so I wrote this.

Here are some of the names that were suggested:

  • Smalltalk
  • Microtalk
  • Minitalk "requires a minicomputer to run!", fitting since this would've done well back in the late 70s, early 80s...
  • "Yet Another Chat Program It SeemS. Everyone will go crazy for YACPISS."
  • "khat. Maybe if you had a KDE frontend?" "Because bolting on KDE support is what a <200 line program needs"
  • mongochat. "down the slippery slope of bloat :)"

Requirements

  • C compiler.
  • POSIX system
  • GNU readline

Usage

$ minitest path/to/file

By default, it uses your username as the nick. You can override this by passing the username on the command line.

$ minitest path/to/file mynick

To send a message, type it and hit enter. To quit, type /quit.

A demo!