The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5) - Macromedia developers get a shot at AIM

Macromedia developers get a shot at AIM

Macromedia developers get a shot at AIM
http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5109001.html

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. How great would it be to the AIM feature in other (non-Macromedia Central) apps? (Desktop apps built in Java, VB, etc....) I think this would be more useful than integrating with MSN Messenger, because of tie it has to Windows (they have a Win version and Mac version, but they could drop the Mac version like they did IE).

Actually, I don't know the answer to this question, does MSN Messenger allow 3rd party integration?

Michael Sica
Wednesday, November 19, 2003

AOL should write a low-level AIM ActiveX Control that can be freely redistributed by other app developers (like Microsoft does with some of its MSVCRT DLLs). Other Windows apps could get integrate with the AIM network, but seamlessly integrate with their apps GUI or create an innovative new GUI. Then VB and Python developers can write their code wrappers for the AIM ActiveX Control.

runtime
Wednesday, November 19, 2003

i'd like to see something a little more open than a windows activex control. (open as in, open to other platforms)

Michael Sica
Wednesday, November 19, 2003

good point. I was assuming AOL would want to keep their protocol "enshrouded" behind a closed-source interface. If they really want to interoperate, they should just release the spec for their network protocol. Leave the programming grunt work to all the open-source volunteers and their favorite programming languages. :-)

runtime
Wednesday, November 19, 2003

that would be cool!

.... thinking out loud ....
i am actually starting to wonder about it though. is the use of an IM program inside another really beneficial? if a person is on a computer, they could just use the regular chat client.

... still rambling ....
but ... what if the fact that the chat program was in another application allowed the conversations to be associated with things inside the main application... or maybe when you do a file transfer through the IM protocol it could be saved in or associated to the main program....

/anyway
yeah, i guess i would like to see all the major chat clients open their protocols for app developers. (unless they already are and i'm just ignorant and too lazy to go check :) )

Michael Sica
Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Having the IM client accessible inside other programs lets you do all sorts of neat stuff with computer generated messages. Consider a multiplayer networked game - you could use the IM system to do the chat system, plus send out status messages (Blue Soldier is down! type stuff) over the same protocol.

Chris Tavares
Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Haven't people already reverse engineered the AIM protocol? Don't Jabber and GAIM interoperate? Is the problem a closed protocol or that AOL's AIM servers block other programs?

runtime
Wednesday, November 19, 2003

It's not hard to set up a packet sniffer and start sending things to the AOL server to see how it responds. gaim, jabber, and trillian all interoperate. Microsoft threatened to bring this to end by introducing authentication protocols and licensing. Yahoo upgraded recently, making everyone scurry to catch up.

Personally, I hate that all my friends are on different networks. I have AIM, Yahoo, MSN and ICQ buddies. Though I'm grateful that someone doesn't control the whole enchilada.

Maybe it's time for the world to look at Waste and develop a set of tools around it to make it more user friendly.

www.MarkTAW.com
Wednesday, November 19, 2003

I always wondered...once all the protocols are open, and any client is usable, who runs the central servers and why? Or is there a peer to peer method I haven't heard of?

Wild ideas: the government/some consortium of ISPs, or the central server starts spamming.

Friday, November 21, 2003

> Or is there a peer to peer method I haven't heard of?

http://sourceforge.net/projects/waste/
http://waste.sourceforge.net/
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-1011585.html?tag=fd_top

www.MarkTAW.com
Friday, November 21, 2003

Hmm...okay, but that doesn't solve the problem of 25 of a group connecting with 25 of another group, who connect with 25 of another group, who connect with 25 of another group...

It's a huge interconnected web. Can it be solved using this small model?

Friday, November 21, 2003

Probably not, but it's open source, so if you want something that does that - go ahead and develop it.

There are Network Names in Waste, though you can't be connected to more than one at a time and can only run one instance of Waste at a time.

As far as I can tell, if I'm connected to Brad and Janet, and Janet is connected to Mork and Mindy, I'm peripherally connected to Mork and Mindy, but I don't have to have them on my list. Also, I'm not sure why the network is limited to approx. 50 people, but I think you can stretch it beyond that.

But I'm not sure, I haven't had much time to work with it (read: my friends are firmly entrenched in AIM / Yahoo / MSN and won't give it up. Strangely, almost nobody uses ICQ.)

www.MarkTAW.com
Saturday, November 22, 2003

I was wrong, you can run two instances of Waste with two different networks by creating seperate profiles.

www.MarkTAW.com
Saturday, November 22, 2003