AIM Extras Found in ResHack

[Plasma2002b]

Hey people.... ive been lookin through AIM 4.8.2790 tonight and ive noticed some stuff..... stuff that wasnt in AIM 4.7


I see that AIM has been trying to work on theyre logging feature..... theyve added some extra forms that have to do with it.

taker a look at these lates LOG Forms....

[Plasma2002b]

another thing (isnt new, but just thought id post about it.)

i was looking through some string variables and aim uses its own table of %x variables.... (lke the standard %n, %t, etc...)

these are usually used internally... i have NO clue if you can use them on your own (because some of them are used for specific things - like stock symbols, etc)... but there might be someway of doing it. Ill supply the ones i know, and ill leave the rest up to you guys.... the AIM community, lol.

These are sometimes used in dialogs, sometimes other places.

%s
- most common variable - different for diferent instances, but commonly used for another user's SN

%ld- used for error's. - IE: "Failed due to error %ld"

%d - used in the Talk dialog as a volume level indicator

%.3f - used for stocks. states the point value that a stock is at

%.4f - same as above

%lu - used as an indicator for the numbers of buddies on your list

%u - used as a TIME indicator for telling how long a buddy has been on (you see it in your BL

%d - used for numbers like Page number when printing, point size of font, AND warning levels

%0.200s - this is the variable used for Buddy INFO

%% - makes it so a single % can be displayed




thats prety much it for the %x variables....... all in all, %s is the most common variable used for text strings, and %d is used for number strings.....

i doubt anyone will be able to acces these outside of any internal console, but if you do, tell me about it.[/list]

[Big-O Ryan]

These are printf format fields, used in printf format strings. When creating or outputting a string, they simply mean "number goes here", or "string goes here". You can change the strings, as long as you don't change the order of the format fields, if you'd like to change the text somehow. However, you won't be able to add a field to a string (you'll either get a crash, or simply nothing will appear where you added field).

In short, you won't really be able 'use' these.

The dialogs in your first post are certainly interesting, though.

printf

Format Specification Fields

[Plasma2002b]

i installed AIM 5 on one of my older machines just to get access to the dll files and such so i could investigate these as well...... it seems that theres a built in XML parser in AIM 5.... not much info on that tho.

I looked in AimRes.dll through the dialogs and what made me think, was the fact that all the log dialogs are the same again. nothing new or changed.

Does this mean that they might almost be ready to open the logging system?




But what i DID find interesting was a built in ZIP system. Called Dynazip... i dont know how its working in line with AIM 5 (i have no intention of actually USING 5, lol), but i know its there for something.

pic of DynaZIP:



Another thing i found in both AIM 5 AND 4.8....... im not exactly sure what this has to do with anything that the standard user would ever need it for. i know that AIM 'admins' or sysop's use this, but yea.... i jus dont know.
Secure ID:




Last but not least... ive seen this posted in the Feature Request, and i was surprised to see such a.... easy way to get it, lol. Is this thing enabled in 5? I havent really heard much about it.... might just be another thing like the log preferences.... a work in progres maybe.....
Alias:

[Big-O Ryan]

Some of those log dialogs were used in AIM 4.4 (which featured logging). Maybe all, I'm not sure, I didn't use that version very much, some users still do, though, and they would know better than me..

In my experience, the unused stuff you find in AIM, is more often old stuff, than new stuff.

And to further re-enforce that fact, take a look at what they added for their last major version upgrade to AIM (5.0). A mandatory typing indicator, expressions, and prettied-up buttons. Now, prettied-up buttons are nice, the typing indicator is pretty much nothing (it was already there to begin with, if you wanted it you hit the DC button..), and the 'expressions', which we all thought would mean skins, are quite an eyesore.

This is what they chose to implement in their latest major upgrade to the world's most popular instant messaging application. AOL is not a company known for driving innovative software. Unfortunately, their software has always been (and is certainly still proving to be) marketing-driven, which is sadly very different from market-driven. In short, expect nothing - and then prepare to be disappointed at even that.

Also, the IM client market does not have a lot of pull for software developers. The software out there isn't very good, but it's hard to get inspired to create an application whose success depends solely on the continued ability to use other coporation's proprietary networks, and to compete with their free clients. Building a better client is a big time investment, built upon a shaky future. It seems likely that a unified IM standard will emerge, and then you'll be in a good position, far ahead of the crowd with a client well into development - but we've been waiting years for unified instant messaging..

On the upside, AIM is still a modestly-sized download, and it is fast and quite stable. And with AIM+, it hardly feels like there's any bloat in there at all.

[ Edit: mmm, irrelavant preaching rant. ]

[Anthony]

Do you think that the zip thing has to do with the expressions? (I dont think they currently do). Then again the files are very small to begin with... but on the other hand I never have anyone call AOL smart.

[Anthony]

If its in the AIMRes.dll file wouldnt you think there is a special way that you could actually find it with out messing around with the files.... I mean most easter eggs are meant to be found by the consumer if not all. Then again I no longer am suprised at any thing that AOL does, in less of course they do something original.

[Plasma2002b]

ok, well... i think you may be confused a bit.... those dialogs i found arnt quite easter eggs..... easter eggs are hidden features that are meant to be found.

the dialogs arnt meant to be used at all right now..... but they are there because the developers are working on all of it and it just gets saved with the current version of the software.... they just dont enable it.

That picture of the developers team in the res.dll, im not sure if its part of an easter egg or not..... all i know is that its there for something. there might be some way to see it in the client that no1 knows about. (maybe something to do with the about dialog)

[iSteve530]

interesting, I have seen the log dialogs in use. Now try to find the group shot of all the AOL programmers.

[fuuucckkers]

That last dialog you displayed there is supposedly implemented into AIM 5 already. It works like the Yahoo one does. Instead of displaying your buddys actual screen name, it can display their real name, nickname or whatever you choose.

[jester22c]

That picture of the developers team in the res.dll, im not sure if its part of an easter egg or not..... all i know is that its there for something. there might be some way to see it in the client that no1 knows about. (maybe something to do with the about dialog)

That picture of the staff is actually a pretty old easter egg. It's been in there since version 1. On the sign on screen if you clicked in the bottom left hand corner and drug to the right the picture would come up but I can't seem to get it to work in 4.8. It worked for me in 4.7 though.

[sweeney]

That last dialog you displayed there is supposedly implemented into AIM 5 already. It works like the Yahoo one does. Instead of displaying your buddys actual screen name, it can display their real name, nickname or whatever you choose.

Do you know how to use that? That could come in handy since i have a lot of s/n's on my buddy list, and screen names sometimes get confusing...

[SNiiP3R]

heh did you notice that hidden picture of the developers team is the same size as the Aim loging Screen pic ( 190 x 150 )

[fuuucckkers]

That last dialog you displayed there is supposedly implemented into AIM 5 already. It works like the Yahoo one does. Instead of displaying your buddys actual screen name, it can display their real name, nickname or whatever you choose.

Do you know how to use that? That could come in handy since i have a lot of s/n's on my buddy list, and screen names sometimes get confusing...

Well.. if it is implemented into AIM5, which I now think it is NOT(i dont see any info on their sites about it). It would work just like the Yahoo version does. You right click their buddy name, click on Enter Info or something similar...And enter their alias name you want it to be displayed as when you talk to them..and in the buddy list.

I found it using ResHack.. built inside the 'AimRes.dll' .. I think it may be a feature that got taken out for whatever reason. Or may be in a future version.