TOC protocol: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:42, 28 July 2012

Revision as of 11:43, 8 August 2012

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The '''TOC protocol''', or '''Talk to OSCAR protocol''', was a [[protocol (computing)|protocol]] used by some [[Third-party developer|third-party]] [[AOL Instant Messenger]] [[client (computing)|client]]s and several clients that [[AOL]] produced itself. Sometime near August 19, 2005, AOL discontinued support for the protocol and no longer uses it in any of the instant messaging clients it actively maintains, such as its Windows and Mac clients for the AOL Instant Messenger and [[ICQ]] systems. However, it once did produce several of its own TOC clients, including [[TiK]] and [[TAC (software)|TAC]] which are written in [[Tcl]]/[[Tk (computing)|Tk]], [[TNT (instant messenger)|TNT]] which is written in [[Emacs]] [[Lisp programming language|Lisp]], all of which are open source, and a Java client originally called [[TIC (software)|TIC]] which later became the [[Quick Buddy]] web applet. AOL also provided the TOC protocol specification openly to developers in the hopes that they will use it instead of the [[Proprietary software|proprietary]] [[OSCAR protocol]] they use themselves. In July 2012, AOL turned off the TOC2 servers and it is no longer possible to connect to AIM using this protocol. <ref>http://monal.im/blog/possible-end-of-aim-support/</ref>

TOC was an [[ASCII]]-based protocol, while OSCAR is a binary protocol. In addition, TOC contained fewer features than its OSCAR counterpart. OSCAR provides such functionality as [[buddy icon]]s, file transfer, and [[advertising]].

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== TOC2 ==

The '''TOC2 protocol''' is an updated version of the [[TOC protocol]], or "Talk to OSCAR" protocol. Its existence was never documented by [[AOL]] and it is only used in a few [[AOL Instant Messenger]] clients. Some clients are beginning to offer plugins for TOC2 in light of AOL's recent shutdown of their TOC servers. Like its predecessor, TOC2 is an ASCII protocol and lacks some features of [[OSCAR protocol|OSCAR]], but unlike TOC, TOC2 is known to support [[buddy icon]]s and receiving file transfers (not sending). TOC2 operates in essentially the same way as TOC, as a wrapper for OSCAR. [[Porting]] code from TOC to TOC2 is remarkably easy as well.

Because of the similarities between TOC1.0 and TOC2.0, they are better defined by their differences, of which there are only a few: