[Amorya]

I'm in need of a simple chat client, to access chat at www.ansir.com. Their Java chat seems incompatible with MacOS X, so I'm looking into creating a simple, standalone chat client for their site.

I've never programmed in a real language before (I'm reasonably good at Hypertalk, etc, but I never got further than the console window in C). Now I've got MacOS X installed, I'm looking into learning Cocoa and Objective C. Many people tell me it's really easy to program in.

My program needs to be able to connect via telnet to the chat server, and interpret the various lines of text it gets sent (I have the complete specification of the chat to hand.) It also needs to maintain a user list, and handle correctly invitations to private rooms. There is nothing special in their chat implementation, except that everyone gets their unique colour (given as a HTML reference eg cc9900).

Would Objective C be the best way to write this? How should I go about learning it? How long would it take?

Finally, if there is any developer with too much time on their hands, who wants to write some code for this for me, please get in touch (:
I'd make sure your name was on it, if it was distributed (and if it works, ansir'll put it up on their site. I do HTML work for them, so I'm on good terms with the owners.)

Thanks

Amorya.
amorya@ansir.com

[Angus_D]

There doesn't appear to be any nice little class in Foundation for internet access, but the kind folks at Omni have released their OmniNetworking framework into the public domain. There's a little example on how to use it over at http://www.stepwise.com/ under their articles section.