“tput bel” is a command included with practically every UNIX-like OS, and it simply makes the terminal produce a bell noise. I actually had to look up what it is from, since I am not familiar with ncurses either.
As for your comment about “inconvenient”, that’s actually the opposite of what I am trying to say when I use the word. I’m trying to make it clear that I do not consider this an essential feature, and I do not expect it to be treated as such. Sorry for the miscommunication.
There’s nothing wrong with rejecting a request, by the way. I am suggesting it because I would like to see it, I feel it is within the scope of the project, and no one else has suggested it. This is a request, not a demand. If you do reject this, the project is better for it having been proposed: it will prevent others from suggesting this in the future, since it has already been discussed.
As for being worth a dev’s time, I could still write a patch once it is clear it would be accepted. It would just be time-consuming for me to test this on multiple systems (as opposed to multiple people testing it on their own systems), so I’d rather not commit to that before debating its merits.
And yes, I feel that generating a substantial queue of unread messages from myself to myself is not an ideal solution. I might try it, but it would be better to have a specific command. Especially for those that do not want chat messages to beep.