Using AIM without a GUI

[gore]

After searching around I found an AIM and other IM friendly client that doesn't make you use X. Heh, most people here already know I don't like GUI clients for IRC or AIM and have been searching for one that doesn't need X.

Well, I found this:

http://site.n.ml.org/info/naim/


It's called an Ncurses client which is about right, and some things look like IRSSI, my favorite IRC client.

One thing I've done so far, well, I downloaded it last night, it's a Bzip file, and I downloaded, got it out, and after untarring, I did the ./configure, make make install make clean, and started it up. It started up without a problem whatsoever, but when I type the stuff here:


/connection "MyScreenName" login.oscar.aol.com 5190

I get the message too type in my password, so I do that, and then it says nothing and says I'm still not connected. So it seems like a great application, but like, has anyone used it? I'm thinking more people should use it so bugs can get fixed, because I really like how this thing looks. I've seen how it looks and working with it is fairly easy and the configuration, is a snap. But I'm going to look over the manua now (Last resort).

Let me know if any of you find out anything or like it.

I have this installed on Slackware Linux 10 right now, and I know someone here has too want a tool like this as its all the fun of AIM and none of the RAM waste called a GUI.

TheJinx, hoe you better use this, you always whine about the UI of AIM

[MrLinus]

I used to use CenterICQ for an extensive period until I sorta fizzled a bit on my ICQ/AIM/Yahoo/MSN stuff. It's a nice multi-IM ncurses interface. Highly recommend it.

[Spyder32]

On a window's machine, the GUI is decent. Not much to really complain about. On a *nix machine, the GUI is differenced a little bit, but I kinda like nAIM as well as gAIM and all of the other variables. Text-based is like command-line instant messaging and I think it's somewhat fun actually.

[djscribble]

i was able to get it working by typing in "/connect [screenname]" you cannot use the oscar server, you have to use the older TOC server... Here is why:

Why does naim use TOC instead of Oscar? Isn't Oscar newer?

Many other AIM clients use an alternative protocol, Oscar, which does have this
capability. The original AIM protocol was Oscar, and AOL later created TOC to
serve the needs of their Java client. In 1998 AOL released a public document
specifying details of the TOC protocol, for use by third-party clients such as
naim. Since then, they have made many significant changes to the Oscar protocol
to discourage third-party client maintainers from using Oscar. It is possible
for third-party clients to use the Oscar protocol, but I would prefer to spend
my time working on new features to spending it in keeping up with AOL's latest
protocol revisions, rush-testing new releases, and publicizing the problem and
availability of corrected versions.

http://naim-users.org/nmlorg/naim/quickstart (about half way down the page)

just FYI - i did this on slackware 10

[hypronix]

IRSSI pwnz all your IRC base!

Why clutter your system with tooltips and confusing menus etc? It's all a keystroke away.. viva shell-based apps!

[HTRegz]

Hey Hey,

I agree with gore that the console is so much better... although I'm anti GUI for everything... :P

Anyways..... I never used AIM before I came to AO, so I've never used it in a *nix environment...

However, for ICQ I swear by mICQ... I haven't used it since it was rewritten.. but when it was Matt's ICQ client... it was absolutely amazing... you can check it out @ http://www.micq.org

I also used CenterICQ for a while, and it was handy because it was multiple IMs in one...

One that I just heard about and I'm dying to check out is TMSNC -- Textbased MSN Client from http://tmsnc.sourceforge.net/ it seems like it'd be rather handy to have floating around.. Has anyone played with it yet?

Peace,
HT

[gore]

I got it now! Heh, I did the Syntaxx wrong. I just told The_Jinx too bring his bitch ass here too take part in my thread lol. So for the people using, how about it? Neat huh?