AIM Now (Mostly) Open To Developers

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."

Comments

Re: Acronyms

[KURAAKU Deibiddo]

Mac (in the sense that it is used in this article) isn't actually an acronym, it's just short for Macintosh (a type of Apple computer). MAC (the acronym) usually refers to Media Access Control, which is a networking layer.

Linux is not an acronym, either, just a derivation of "Linus' Minix" (Linus Torvalds being the creator of the Linux kernel).

Thanks, but no thanks

[Nephroth]

This is just AOL making a half-assed attempt as not appearing evil, it's about like sticking Stalin in a sundress.

I'm guessing this will be their version of what normal beings call a compromise, sure you can have your own clients, but you have to use our SDK. We'll fill your client full of bloat, and shut it down if you dare to make it useful.

Open AIM does NOT provide IM interop

[sreekotay]

From my blog

"Fundamentally, the newly announced (and extended) Open AIM SDK will enable developers to enhance the AIM network's reach and functionality.

What can you do with it: - Extend AIM Triton at a low level - Embed AIM functionality in your own applications - Create your own version of the AIM client - Embed presence functionality and communications touchpoints in web applications

To be clear: there are some restrictions and limitations on the ways in which you can leverage the AIM services we've made available, as we feel our way through the operational and business implications. But this should open up a broad set of possible applications on top of the AIM network and namespace immediately.

In particular, Open AIM does NOT provide IM network interop with other Instant Messaging networks, at this time."