chatty: The terminal chat application

Overview

chatty is a terminal chat application. Included is also a server.

Client features

• users are saved
• you can send messages
• you can pause and resume with Ctrl-Z and the fg command
• messages can have basic markdown formatting
• basic shortcuts for editing the message
• reconnecting on

Shortcuts

• Ctrl+C | Ctrl+D: quits
• Ctrl+U: Erase input line
• Ctrl+W: Erase word behind cursor
• Ctrl+Y: Paste clipboard into input field

Server features

• multiple users
• recovering on invalid messages
• send "connected"/"disconnected" messages to other clients

Build

Run the build script.

./source/build.sh

Try it out

Run the server with

./build/server

You can stop it with Ctrl-D

In another prompt, start a client with

./build/chatty Poulbi

Resources

• Terminal library: Termbox2
• Source code I looked at:
  • https://github.com/git-bruh/matrix-tui
  • https://github.com/NikitaIvanovV/ictree
• mmap & gdb: Tsoding - "Why linux has this syscall?"
• pthreads: C for dummies
• unicode and wide characters: C for dummies
• sockets: Nir Lichtman - Making Minimalist Chat Server in C on Linux
• Syscall manpages man
• Compression: Casey Muratori - Simple RLE Compressor