For years, I’ve used iChat’s “Automatically save chat transcripts” feature. It’s perfect for folks like me who, much to the chagrin of all my friends, save every single chat I have with everyone, often simply for “oh, when did he say we were supposed to meet?” purposes…but sometimes for blackmail, too, or proving someone wrong when they say “no, I never said that.”
It’s not evil. It’s clever thinking.
And I’ve never had a problem with iChat’s logging feature: opening saved convos was hassle-free, and Chax’s built-in log-viewer made it easy to pull up transcripts quickly right in iChat. But with Leopard’s iChat v.AWESOME, I’ve noticed something that’s cramping my “you said this six months ago” style: saved transcripts take forever to load. Especially longer ones.
And it’s not only saved ‘scripts: it’s manipulating open convos, too. Say I want to change my chat view from bubbles to text (you know, so I can copy what someone said and sneakily send it to another buddy): try changing it for a long conversation and iChat hangs for a good minute or two. Not just that chat window…but all of iChat, which often disrupts conversations I’m having with others, or even requires a Force Quit to recoup.
So what’s the solution? Some of you may say “stop recording everything your friends do; and for the love of God stop copying what they say to other people without their consent.” And sure, that’d be the easy way out. My solution’s better, though: browse the now-nicely-organized chats in your Documents folder and view them instead in Quick Look, which is very snappy, no matter the log’s size. There are also other solutions, like Logorrhea. (And, hopefully, Chat Transcript Manager, assuming Unsanity ever updates it for Leopard.)
I’m mostly just complaining. Leopard’s iChat is indeed awesome, but the slow-downs and hang-ups are a bit ridiculous, especially since iChat handled it all so well in the past. (Even Chax’s log-viewer is stymied by iChat’s sluggishness.) Have any of you experienced the same snail-y problems? Hell, let’s make this a forum for iChat complaints. Rip it apart in the comments. Show no mercy!
