chat revisited.. I seek a volunteer?

[Lorenzo Taylor]

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So you need IRC to be linked up with an existing web client.  Well, this is a
little more involved, maybe.  Of course the simplest thing for all involved is
to ditch the client altogether and host the room as a channel on the IRC server.
Easy enough, but if the hosting company is not willing to do this then we really
have a problem.  The only other solution is to create an IRC gateway to the chat
room.  This is, of course, much easier for the hosting company, since they have
to do absolutely nothing.  However, it would involve a lot of programming and
reverse-engineering of the protocol used by the web client in order to get a
functional IRC channel.  And last, but certainly not least, is trying to do
everything possible to make the chat client itself work well with screen
readers.  And that would be the hardest thing for the hosting company, since
they would have to reprogram their client, if it will even work with most screen
readers.  Jaws may have changed somewhat over the years, but last time I tried
to use it for a browser-based chat, the only time it would speak is if I used
the Jaws cursor constantly, and that was a real pain, and I lost a lot of
messages that way.  This last solution is much harder on the hosting company
from a programmer's standpoint than simply ditching their client altogether in
favour of an IRC server, since the IRC server would require no extensive
reprogramming, only basic configuration mostly.

HTH,
Lorenzo
- -- 
Living your life is a task so difficult, it has never been attempted before.
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