“Among the major changes in Open AIM 2.0 is the fact that AOL is
now providing open documentation on its core OSCAR protocol (Open
System for CommunicAtion in Realtime), which powers AIM.
Previously, open source instant messaging client implementations of
OSCAR had to reverse-engineer the protocol instead of simply using
a documented protocol.“‘Our protocols continue to evolve over time and reverse
engineering is a hard way to stay up to date with all the changes,’
Greg Cypes, principal software engineer on AOL AIM, told
InternetNews.com.“There is, however, a catch…”