Re: [JDEV] AOL+, ISP usage, etc..

[Temas <temas@box5.net>]

Well if we look at the two protocols I can give a few really good
reasons.  One even though TOC says it is super simple this is not true. 
The first thing it touts as nice is it's text based protocol. 
Personally I hate messing with strings in C, not that it's hard but it
is cumbersome sometimes.  Another interesting thing about TOC is you
still have to track the sequence number like the OSCAR protocol.  That
is one of the most tedious parts of it.  Those are just some of the
things that TOC could have made easier but did not.  The items I like
about OSCAR are that I think the chatnav support is better, I think the
file transport support is better, and I think it is more reliable
because it does not disconnect you on just about any error that it gets,
and it's a binary protocol.  TOC has two nice points,it is fairly open
source, and the stock quotes on the buddy list.  That is a definite
draw.  Working with OSCAR we are still trying to get chatnav and file
transfers to work fully with libfaim.  Really either protocol would work
although I feel that we're going to find that the OSCAR protocol is
going to accelerate more quickly than the TOC protocol as AOL adds more
features such as the newest file transfers.  Like I said again, I
finally have little amounts of free time at night and would be more than
happy to work on the transport with you, just let me know.

--Thomas Muldowney

Jeff McBride wrote:
> 
> I am just starting to work on the transport. I read in the archive someone
> else who didn't like TOC much:). Now you. Why is this? I was planning on
> using TOC rather than OSCAR. But if there is really some good reason why
> OSCAR is better, maybe I should use that?
> 
> Thanks,
> Jeff
> 
> On Sat, 10 Jul 1999, Temas wrote:
> 
> > Hey all, everyone so often I pop in here when I hear something about
> > AOL.  I work on the libfaim AIM library, and have heard the same rumors
> > about AOL slowly removing ICQ.  Anyway, to the person that is going to
> > work on the transport, I'd be glad to help if you need it.  I originally
> > was going to write a transport using libfaim, but discovered I would
> > have to rewrite how it handles the array of connections.  I may do this
> > when I have more time, but work doesn't let up =)  Either way I know a
> > lot about the actual OSCAR protocol and a lot about the TOC protocol
> > (bad, evil, no ;-) ).
> >
> > --Thomas Muldowney