Software:Snak

From HandWiki
Short description: IRC client
Snak
Original author(s)Kent Sorensen
Initial release3 March 1997 (1997-03-03)
Stable release5.3.4 (March 11, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-11)[1]) [±]
Operating systemClassic Mac OS, Mac OS X
Platformx86
TypeIRC client
LicenseProprietary

Snak (Danish for "chat") was a shareware Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client written by Kent Sorensen for the Macintosh platform.[2][3][4] Snak was distributed as shareware and could be freely used and evaluated for 30 days at no charge.[3] After the 30-day evaluation period has ended, the program would quit after 15 minutes of use, and a registration key had to be purchased. Versions up to 4.12 run on both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X while version 5 and newer only support Mac OS X. The program is Intel Only as of version 5.3.4. The program is not fully compatible with current macOS versions[5] and is no longer supported, with the developer stating that he is unable to create new versions due to the deprecation of the Carbon libraries.[6] On October 10, 2018, Snak was made freeware with a license key published on the project's web site.[7]

Features

Snak supports an unlimited number of connections and channels,[8] private chats, as well as full DCC support for file transfers and chat. It can be scripted with AppleScript and the ircII scripting language.[9] Snak features an Actions list which makes it easy to automate responses to many common events on IRC.[10]

Snak includes the ability for multiple panels to share the windows. A panel can contain a channel, a dialog with another user, a list, or information about a DCC file transfer. This results in an effective use of the screen space and improves the ability to follow multiple channels. A panel can be moved from one window to another by dragging the title bar or the panel tab.

Although limited support UTF-8 support has been included since version 5.1.5 (released 2006-09-23), as of December 30, 2014, full UTF-8 support is still lacking (promised for "the next major version").[11]

Reception

Jason Parker, Assistant editor for Download.com, wrote for CNET Reviews on May 26, 2005, "If you want a great IRC chat client for Mac, Snak is hands-down the best in the category."[12]

References

  1. "Snak - IRC for Mac". http://www.snak.com/. 
  2. Charalabidis, Alex (1999-12-15). "IRCing On The Macintosh: Snak". The Book of IRC: The Ultimate Guide to Internet Relay Chat (1st ed.). San Francisco, California: No Starch Press. pp. 64 – 66. ISBN 1-886411-29-8. https://archive.org/details/bookofirc00char/page/64. "Snak is another very new Mac client that has rapidly become one of the leading choices, especially for people who find Ircle's four or more windows cluttered or confusing." 
  3. 3.0 3.1 Mutton, Paul (2004-07-27). "IRC from Mac OS X: Snak". IRC Hacks (1st ed.). Sebastopol, California: O'Reilly Media. pp. 13–14. ISBN 0-596-00687-X. "One of the friendliest and three of the more popular, and more powerful, IRC clients available for OS X are presented here: Conversation, X-Chat Aqua, Snak, and IRCle. (p. 11)" 
  4. Steinberg, Gene (2000-03-21). Mac OS 9: The Complete Reference. Osborne Complete Reference Series. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. pp. 856. ISBN 0-07-212506-3. https://archive.org/details/mac_Mac_OS_9_The_Complete_Reference_2000. "Two IRC clients stand out on the Mac: ircle 3.0.4 and Snak 3.1." 
  5. "Snak home page". http://snak.com. "Works well on 10.10 and older, problems with sleep and contextual menus on newer macOS versions" 
  6. "Snak home page". http://snak.com. "Unfortunately Snak is no longer supported and it is not possible to create new versions." 
  7. "Snak homepage". http://snak.com. "Oct 10 2018. As Snak is no longer fully compatible with the current macOS, and updating it is impossible I can't in good conscience accept payment. Please use the provided email and license key as your registration information. Thank you very much for using Snak." 
  8. "Snak: Description". http://www.snak.com/Description.html. Retrieved 2012-03-11. 
  9. "Snak: Manual: Scripting". http://www.snak.com/manual/52/Scripting.html. Retrieved 2012-03-11. 
  10. "Snak: Manual: Actions". http://www.snak.com/manual/52/Actions.html. Retrieved 2012-03-11. 
  11. "Snak - IRC for Mac - Version History". http://www.snak.com/SnakHistory.html. Retrieved 2014-12-30. 
  12. Parker, Jason. "Instant messengers for PC and Mac". Killer Downloads. CNET.com. http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3000_7-6231335-1.html. Retrieved 2009-10-14. "If you want a great IRC chat client for Mac, Snak is hands-down the best in the category."