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AIM Now (Mostly) Open To Developers

Posted by ryuzaki0 on

gregsblog writes "Today is a historic day at AOL as we announced a software development kit for AOL Instant Messenger. Open AIM will empower you, as the developer, to write custom clients and plugins. For now, lets concentrate on the Open AIM SDK and get into what it can do for you. First, the development kit is written using COM, so plugins and custom clients can be written for Windows in languages like C++, VB, C#, and eventually J-Script. In the near future we will have solutions for LINUX, MAC and Windows Mobile devices. Why is this important? We now have a solution to provide all AIM users and consumers to build their own IM clients and to extend the features of Triton via plugins. Of course all of this is free of charge. How do I get started? Well my team has provided a quick start guide, and tutorials, in addition to numerous coding examples, from the simple to the complex. Our examples are in C++ and C#. What are the limitations? Basically anything goes, with the exception of writing multi-headed clients."

10 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Well, that'll change everything... by meringuoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... I mean, we've only been using Gaim for about five years now...

    --
    Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    1. Re:Well, that'll change everything... by danpsmith · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, actually gAIM has a few problems. I've noticed direct connect and file transfer seldom work on it. Maybe this will help fix that.

      --
      Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
    2. Re:Well, that'll change everything... by meringuoid · · Score: 5, Insightful
      I've noticed direct connect and file transfer seldom work on it. Maybe this will help fix that.

      Having had time to RTFA, I'd say it's unlikely the Gaim developers will touch this release. The licensing terms are incompatible; among other things, it forbids the creation of clients that are interoperable with other networks.

      One might try arguing that a Gaim plugin using the AOL code does not in itself violate that - it's the end user who breaks the rule when they load in plugins for other networks - but I somehow think that won't fly in court.

      I notice you also need separate licensing to create a client that runs on a mobile. Hmm. Something to do with mobile operators not wanting to lose all that SMS revenue from people using AIM instead, perhaps? ;-)

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  2. A slight step forward by ihuntrocks · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The overall effectiveness of this will of course be determined by the users who are writing their own clients/plugins. Your mileage may vary. However, I do see this as a positive step forward, if only in an academic sense. With a major company making such an effort to have their software available for community modification, with tutorials and examples, I'd have to say that this is a nice step away from the monoculture software development. Even if you can't get anything truly useful out of it, it is interesting to take a look at what is offered and see what you might be able to learn from it. Never hurts to experiment.

    --
    Randimal: AT-CG-CG-AT-CG-AT-AT-CG-CG-AT-AT-CG-AT-CG-CG-AT-CG-AT-AT-CG-AT-CG-CG-AT-AT-CG-CG-AT-CG-AT-AT-CG
  3. Funny definition of open... by chill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Developers are not permitted to build Custom Clients that are multi-headed or interoperable with any other IM network."

    The definition of "almost, but not quite totally useless" seems more appropriate.

      -Charles

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    1. Re:Funny definition of open... by Bogtha · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This will be a boon to those doing internal company projects who would like to connect to IM to send messages which need to be received in real time for monitoring things like servers or some other process where a traditional monitoring tool might not work.

      Why would a company choose AIM over the IETF-ratified XMPP standard, Jabber? There are open-source Jabber servers and clients that do that job just as well, and you don't have to rely on another business to make them work. Do businesses even have the option of installing an AIM server locally?

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    2. Re:Funny definition of open... by Bogtha · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm specifically referring to this:

      This will be a boon to those doing internal company projects who would like to connect to IM to send messages which need to be received in real time for monitoring things like servers or some other process where a traditional monitoring tool might not work.

      The installed userbase is meaningless for things like this. Who cares if AIM has millions of users? You aren't telling Joe Random every time your server goes down, you're telling your server admins.

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  4. libgaim by babbling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the Gaim Wikipedia article:

    Recently, the Gaim developers have started to separate the core code--which handles things such as network connections and messaging--from the GUI code, which controls how these actions are presented to the user. After the code split is complete, it will be possible to write client programs using a developer's GUI library of choice. The core library produced by the split will be called libgaim; an in-development but stable version of this library is already in use in the Adium, Fire, and Proteus clients as well as the Meebo web-based application.

    So, in other words, AOL are going to have something much more limited than libgaim (AIM protocol only) available in the "near future"? Uhhh... congratulations AOL! Now bugger off, you jerk-burgers!

    1. Re:libgaim by GigsVT · · Score: 4, Insightful

      congratulations AOL! Now bugger off, you jerk-burgers!

      You know, they still run the aim servers... for free.

      And they stopped deliberately breaking other clients for the most part.

      --
      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
  5. Why not officially open the API instead? by Peter+Cooper · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We don't need no stinkin' SDKs.. why not officially document and open up the API instead? That way we can call it and do what we want on any platform without having to worry about SDKs.