# A Possibly Accessible AIM Client

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Saturday, 29-Aug-2009 22:01:03

Okay guys. This is for those of you, like me, who are frustrated with looking for a good AIM client to use with Windows or for those who only have AIM and don't feel like downloading Adium for the Mac. As they say, it's also good for Unix/Linux and possibly DOS users too, so it's truly multiplatform. I've never even heard of some of these systems. I'm not sure how accessible this is so we'll have to try it but it sounds like it's easy to use. Here's the info I got at
http://bsflite.sourceforge.net/index.html
They have the download link there too but they mentioned compiling so that could be a bit complicated for those of us who don't know how to do that..
"What is BSFlite?
BSFlite is a rather small and minimalist client for AOL®'s Instant Messenger™ service. Instead of having a full screen console interface, BSFlite employs a command line interface that allows your fingers to do all of the work without needlessly sifting through windows.
BSFlite runs on UNIX (including Linux, all of the BSD's, Solaris, etc.), Zeta (and possibly BeOS), Windows, DOS, Mac OS X, and Plan 9.
If it's so sparse, why should I use it?
Well, minimalist doesn't necessarily mean sparse. Let's call it, say, nimble. BSFlite supports most standard AIM features, with the notable exceptions of chat rooms and block lists (though it'll honor anything already set by another client). For casual, day-to-day chat, it's perfect, if for nothing else than one important fact: once your fingers learn the commands, it doesn't matter if your brain remembers them or not (think vi). You'll be amazed at how efficiently you can juggle conversations with BSFlite. Seriously.
What kind of features does it have?
• Runs on just about any UNIX machine of any speed
• Uses very few resources, even compared to other console clients
• Very portable codebase with BSD-licensed AIM library for use in your own projects
• Windows port with tiny binary size - put it on a floppy or USB stick and load it up when you need AIM at an Internet cafe or public terminal
• Works great with screen, so you can leave your AIM session logged in when you're not physically at your terminal
• Not affiliated with America Online in any way"

## Post 2 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Sunday, 30-Aug-2009 11:21:06

Or you could use miranda and sign into all of your accounts at once. Granted, it doesn't have multi-platform support, but its basically this with support for many more clients then just aim. If you don't want to use miranda, and you use IRC, then testing.bitlbee.org does the same thing as miranda but for IRC.

## Post 3 by forereel (Just posting.) on Sunday, 30-Aug-2009 11:27:54

Maybe I'm missing the boat, but AIM downloaded from AOL's website is completely accessible for Windows, so I'm not sure why the need for something different?

## Post 4 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Sunday, 30-Aug-2009 11:31:37

I didn't know that. I guess it's changed since the last time I checked. I know most of the other messengers, with the exception of MSN, aren't accessible. At least, I never found them to be. I tried Miranda and got a headache with both the regular and the atapted version. I just couldn't get it to work properly.

## Post 5 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Sunday, 30-Aug-2009 11:34:19

If you use aim from the site, you might wanna check out aim ad hack. It stripps all the ads and extra crap from it.

## Post 6 by forereel (Just posting.) on Sunday, 30-Aug-2009 11:41:01

I have AIM 6 the latest version and it works easy. There is a help section that will give you key strokes and such things.
Now as far as messengers Yahoo works, MSN works, but not the 2009 version, or not well at any rate, and Skype's latest with the Jaws scripts is nice as well, a bit different, but nice. so these just about cover them all. I can run all at once, so can keep up with contacts on any. They make sond when you receive a message, so it's as simple as going to that window and typing.

## Post 7 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Sunday, 30-Aug-2009 11:49:30

They are up to aim 7 now I believe.

## Post 8 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Sunday, 30-Aug-2009 15:58:16

I wanna try this client in DOS and see how well it works with a screenreader. Then, I can use Netsend and this. Now just need one for MSN and maybe the others but that's first.

## Post 9 by The Elemental Dragon (queen of dragons) on Tuesday, 01-Sep-2009 12:54:54

hmm, msn works with jfw... which is good, just annoied that I can't use 2009, grr. using jaws 10.13, something or other... so yeah... might try 2009 again..., might...

## Post 10 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Tuesday, 01-Sep-2009 13:03:02

I might be wrong but I think the latest msn is based on WPF technology, which is not supported in Jaws 10, but will be in Jaws 11. Also Microsoft is switching from MSAA to UIA (User Interface Automation(. Basically it is a new and, hopefully, improved way for screen readers to get information directly from the application rather than having to go through the off screen model and video dislay chaining, which is essentially an absolete technology after XP and only kept in there for the sake of the screen readers. If we manage to move away from that we'll avoid a lot of crashes and can run any software directly from a usb drive without the need to install anything first, but it is also dependent on the designers of the application providing the correct and reliable info through the UIA implementation of their controls, or their usage of standard Windows controls.

## Post 11 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 01-Sep-2009 16:27:18

I'm using 9 something. I'll get 10 if I really feel it necessary but I was using 4.5 before this, then switched to Hal, the NVDA and then the Mac. If Miranda works with 10 then maybe I'll try 10 so I can use all of my messengers when I'm on the XP machine.