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By Ellen Isaacs This page last updated: September 13, 2000 Users can also send each other Text Instant Messages (TIMs), which are equivalent to the instant messages of such programs as AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Excite PAL, etc. The difference is that the users can send these messages between wireless Palms or between computer desktops and Palms.
There are three ways to initiate a text message. The user can double click on the name of the person from the Hubbub main screen; they can select the name and choose the "New Instant Message" item in the File menu, shown in Figure D8a; or they can select the name, right-click on it, and choose "New Instant Message" from the popup menu, shown in Figure D8b. This brings up an IM window with that person, as shown in Figure D9. (Note that the items in the menus are still being worked out, as are the keyboard shortcuts for them.) Figure D9 shows a conversation that is in progress. Each time a user sends a message, that message appears at the bottom of the scrolling area and the rest of the conversation scrolls up. Each message is preceded by the name of the person who said it in bold. [Probably V2: Desktop users can also choose colors for their text by clicking on the color (default is black), and they can make letters bold by clicking the Bold icon. (There is no italic or underline font on the Palm, so we won't make that available on the desktop.)] The header of a TIM indicates the time at which the conversation was initiated, it does not update with each new message. (This is helpful when you're away and you come back to find a message waiting for you. Other IMs don't give you a timestamp.) The text is of the form "Message with Dipti (1:30pm)".
Users can also send Sound Instant Messages as part of their text messages. To do so, they click on the Sound Message icon at the top of the window or type the keyboard equivalent for it. If the user is using any custom sounds, another "docking button bar" with the custom sounds will appear below the basic set. [They will come with icons & keyboard shortcuts that you assign to the new sound -- more to be determined.] When a user sends a sound message, they each hear the sound, and the icon for that message appears in-line in the text followed by its label, on its own line preceded by the name of the sender and followed by the label, as shown in Figure D9. On the desktop, users can scroll back over the history of all the messages in the window, even though on the Palm messages disappear after 100 messages to save memory. To end a text message, the user closes the window. They can also keep it running in the window while they move to another window. When a user receives the first message of a new conversation, the incoming text message sound plays followed by the Sound ID of the person sending the message. In addition, the text message window automatically displays on their screen, popped to the top but, ideally, without focus. Unlike with the Palm client, there should never be a situation when an incoming IM window is delayed. Even if the user has a popup or error window open in another part of Hubbub, the IM window appears (i.e. they do not block the rest of the application). Each time the person sends a new message to an existing conversation, the TIM sound plays. The Sound ID accompanies it based on a separate algorithm for SIDs (see the Sound ID page, last paragraph).
The footer of the IM window always indicates that bub's activity level by indicating one of these three states: "{Name} is typing in this window," "{Name} is focused in this window" or "{Name} is not focused in this window," as shown in Figure D9. Each message is accompanied by its associated icon. In addition, when a user first initiatesif someone initiates a message to someone else who is idle, the footer says "{Name} has been idle for xx:xx" or "{Name} has been active for xx:xx" and it has no icon next to it. These messages are intended to enable people to coordinate their conversation, which is bound to be punctuated by pauses given the speed at which people can write on the Palm. Users can interpret whether the long pause is because the other person is composing a long response or because they're busy doing something else, and then adjust accordingly. The icons plus text are used to teach the user the meaning of the icons, since we show only the icons on the Palm (where there's no room for the text). As with other IM applications, on the desktop a user can close an IM window with a bub without it affecting that bub. If the bub sends another message, a new window appears on the user's device with a new initiation time and no history of previous contributions. Users can have more than one Text Instant Message window open at once. Users can place them around their screen and carry on conversations with many people at once. Whenever an IM window is open, a menu item appears in the Window menu of the main Hubbub window, as shown in Figure D10. If a user selects an IM in the Window menu, that window comes to the top and gets focus.
If a bub is offline and a user tries to send them a text message, a window pops up, as shown in Figure D11. If the user types a message and clicks send, the message is sent to that bub's current email address. Messages must be no longer than 512 characters. If the user types more characters, the text pane stops accepting characters and beeps with each new entry. When the message arrives in the recipients inbox, it has the subject "Hubbub message from {Hubbubname}." Users can be running Hubbub on more than one device. If a user is active on one of those devices and someone sends them a text message, it appears on that device. However, if they're idle on more than one device, the message appears on all idle but available devices. If the user replies on one of those devices, the conversation is not mimicked on the other device. When they close the window with the conversation, the window for this conversation that opened on the other device(s) would close as well. (This can be put off till later if necessary.)
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