Miranda IM

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Miranda IM
Miranda screenshot
Developer:	Miranda IM Project
Latest release:	0.6.8 / 13 March 2007
Preview release:	0.7 build 22 / 8 April 2007
OS:	Microsoft Windows, Linux [1]
Use:	Instant messaging client
License:	GPL
Website:	miranda-im.org

Miranda Instant Messenger is a minimalist, open source multiprotocol instant messaging application, designed for Microsoft Windows.

Miranda is free software distributed under GNU General Public License

[edit] Architecture

Miranda provides a basic client framework, GUI, and an advanced plugin architecture. Support for various IM protocols and additional features is implemented through optional plugins, some of which come bundled with Miranda by default; the rest (over 500) are available at the Miranda IM website. Unused protocols can be removed, reducing system resource usage. Documentation and plugin how-tos are available in the Miranda IM Wiki.

[edit] Features

• Customized look and function according to each individual's needs.
• Management and organization of hundreds of IM buddies on many IM networks
  • Contact renaming
  • QuickSearch plugin
• Full message archive database
  • Simple recall or deletion with the DB Tool or History Sweeper plugin.
• Contact details or photos visible with mouseover
• No advertising or spyware
• In active development by the core developers and many plugin developers.
• Compact and portable: with few plugins, fits on a 1.44 MB floppy disk or USB flash drive with several plugins and even a large database.
• Flexible: Advanced users can access Miranda IM database files with database plugins.

[edit] Connectivity

[edit] Development history

[edit] Early days

Miranda IM was first started by Roland Rabien (figbug) on February 2, 2000. At that time, it was a minimalist ICQ clone and officially called Miranda ICQ. The first public release, version 0.0.1, was released in February 6, 2000. This release used LibICQ, had no support for message history, database, and plugins, and had a distribution size of less than 100KB.

A major new feature of Version 0.0.4 was the MegaHAL chat bot, which enabled automatic chatting between Miranda and other ICQ users. Plugin support was added with version 0.0.6. Logger Plugin was the first plugin bundled with the official release; AutoAway, Status Notify, and Talk were the first 3 plugins listed as separate downloads.

[edit] Version 0.1.x

After the release of version 0.0.6.1 on December 26, 2000, the original developers left, and Richard Hughes (cyreve) took over the project. His first release, version 0.1.0.0 on April 8, 2001 was improved through a major rewrite. The split message dialog bundled with this release became the first messaging module to be put into a plugin. The MSN protocol plugin appeared around the time of version 0.1.1.0 release. This was the second messaging protocol to be supported by Miranda. This was the first official release to support language pack translations. This was the first appearance of Miranda's multi-protocol, multi-language instant messenger features.

After v0.1.0.0, Miranda plugin development grew rapidly. With version 0.1.2.1 (February 28, 2002), there were approximately 50 plugins available. At the time the new Lizard plugin enabled skinning support; the only time Miranda supported skins. Lizard development stopped soon after, due to the instability it caused. Many of the Lizard skins can still be found in the file listing today.

[edit] Version 0.2.x

After the mysterious disappearance of cyreve in June, 2002, the developers Martin Öberg (Strickz), Robert Rainwater (rainwater), Sam K (egoDust), and Lyon Lim (lynlimz) took over the project. The MSN protocol was taken over by Rako Shizuka who also developed the first version of Yahoo! Messenger protocol, which was the third protocol supported by Miranda. The Yahoo! plugin was closed source, and lost reliability as the official Yahoo! Messenger protocol changed over time - it was later re-written by new developer Gennady Feldman. The MSN plugin was the first to support the rename-dll hack for multiple account support, where a second, renamed copy of the MSN DLL is placed in the plugins folder and separately configured.

The first of the non-IM plugins, including RSS News and Weather, were released within this period. These added a contact to contact list for the purpose of displaying information to the user rather than chatting.

Discussion about renaming of the program and removal of ICQ from the core began about this time. Due to the increase of protocol support, the project was officially renamed to Miranda IM on December 17, 2002.

The newly named Miranda IM was released on February 1, 2003, about three years after the beginning of the project, and a bug fix version came two weeks later. At the time, approximately 150 plugins were available.

[edit] Version 0.3.x

The major change in version 0.3, released on June 23, 2003, was the removal of ICQ from the core into a plugin. From now on, Miranda could run without ICQ being installed. The project moved to a new site at www.miranda-im.org, featuring a new discussion board and file listing.

Protocol plugins bundled in version 0.3 included ICQ, MSN, AIM, and Jabber. The Yahoo! protocol was not included in the package due to its closed source nature. IRC support was added later by Jörgen Persson (m8rix) to the official release of version 0.3.1, on August 8, 2003.

Another major change was the removal of the Send-Recieve Messaging Module from the core into a plugin, SRMM. This reduced the size of the executable file and encouraged rapid development of messaging modules. During this period many variations (including SRAMM, SRMM_mod, etc.) offered different new features and improvements over the standard implementation. The number of IM plugins continued to rise: at the release of version 0.3.3 on April 19, 2004, there were more than 250 plugins available.

[edit] Version 0.4.x

Miranda IM offers the user a fairly high possibility of customization, through the implementation of various plugins and extra components.

Version 0.4 of Miranda IM was released on April 7, 2005. This was the first version to have Yahoo! protocol bundled with the official release. Other major changes included the removal of contact list and database module from core into plugin. As a result of this, there were 4 variations of contact list modules: the original (clist_classic), multi-window contact list (clist_mw), modern contact list (clist_modern), and nicer contact list with extensive UI customization (clist_nicer). Other popular plugins released within this period included tabbed message window (tabsrmm and scriver), HTML based message log support (IE view), scripting plugin (mbot), and also the meta contact plugin. At the time when version 0.4 was released, there were a total of more than 400 plugins available.

[edit] Version 0.5.x

Version 0.5 of Miranda IM was released on July 28, 2006. This is the first version to have unicode support available as a download option for Windows NT, 2000 and XP users. Another new feature is the introduction of AIM Oscar, first released by Snaphat in early 2006, allowing users to transfer files and receive away messages. This version also provides more support for avatars among the various protocols.

[edit] Version 0.6.x

Version 0.6 of Miranda IM was released on December 29, 2006. This version introduces UPnP support to improve file transfer and direct connect reliability through routers. Other changes include improved support for UTF-8 strings, improved tabbed options support, and numerous bug fixes.

[edit] Version 0.7.x

Version 0.7 of Miranda IM is currently under development and is currently released as an alpha. Key changes already implemented include integrated font and icon services, a rewritten menu engine, and a release notifier. Another large change is a new way to uniquely identify plugins and the interfaces they implement which may break backwards compatibility in the future.

[edit] Other releases

Currently an unofficial Linux port of Miranda IM is in development. Alternatively, one may run Miranda IM under WINE [3].

[edit] Future plans

Scheduled new features include a login manager where password protection can be used on a profile, and a new SQLite database is being written to achieve better interoperability.

There has been discussion about a future 1.0 release, which will feature a completely rewritten codebase to allow new features and functionality beyond the capabilities of the current architecture: improved handling of multiple accounts of the same protocol, better multi-user chat in ICQ, and accommodation of multiple server connections in IRC. There is no current time-frame for the 1.0 release. There are plans for an official Linux edition.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Miranda IM

Free software Portal

• List of Jabber client software
• List of IRC clients
• Comparison of instant messaging clients
• Comparison of IRC clients
• Comparison of instant messaging protocols

[edit] External links

• Miranda IM - Website
• Miranda IM - SourceForge Project
• Miranda IM Wiki
• Portable Miranda
• MirandaX - Miranda IM preconfigured for ease of use
• Mir4nda IM™ Pack