Psi (instant messenger)

Psi is a GNU General Public Licenseed instant messaging client for the Jabber (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) protocol which uses the Qt toolkit. It runs on Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X. Ready-to-install RPM Package Manager and deb (file format) packages are available for many Linux distributions. Successful ports of Psi were reported for FreeBSD and Sun Microsystems Solaris Operating Environment operating systems. Due to Psi s free/open-source nature, several private (unofficial) builds have appeared, which usually contain features that will appear in future official Psi versions.

=Mission Statement=

The goal of the Psi project is to create a powerful, yet easy-to-use Jabber/XMPP client that tries to strictly adhere to the XMPP drafts and Jabber JEPs. This means that in most cases, Psi will not implement a feature unless there is an accepted standard for it in the Jabber community. Doing so ensures that Psi will be compatible, stable, and predictable, both from an end-user and developer standpoint.

=Features=

Because Jabber allows gateways to other services, which many servers support, it can also connect to the Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ and .NET Messenger Service networks. Other services available using gateway servers, include RSS (protocol) and ATOM news feeds, sending Short message service messages to cellular networks and weather reports.

As of 2004, Psi has language packs for 14 languages, with even more being created.

Emoticon packs are supported using the jisp format. Many jisp emoticon packs are available, including ones from AIM, iChat, and Trillian (instant messenger).

Since version 0.9.2, Psi supports file transfers between other Jabber clients. However it s not possible to send to or receive files from other Instant_messenger networks. Version 0.9.3, released in January 2005, supports Contact Is Typing Notification (which works even with MSN and AIM contacts) and fixes many usability issues of previous versions.

=History=

The application was created by Justin Karneges and it began as a side project. At various points during its existence Justin was paid to develop the codebase, during which Psi flourished. Typically however, the release cycle of Psi is relatively slow, but the client has always been seen by its fans as a very stable and powerful instant messaging client. Justin [http://psi.affinix.com/forums/index.phpact=ST&f=5&t=2278 left the project] in late 2004 to pursue other endeavors, but he is still well-known as the original author.

In late 2002 [http://maz.sourceforge.net Michail Pishchagin] started hacking Qt code which later became libpsi library. Michail joined the team in March 2003 and he is responsible for many large chunks in Psi code.

Since November of 2004, maintenance has now been taken over by [http://kismith.co.uk/ Kevin Smith], a long-time contributor to the project. Justin is now working solely on [http://delta.affinix.com/iris/ Iris], the Qt/C++ Jabber library upon which Psi is based.

[http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~remko/ Remko Tronçon] started writing his custom patches for Psi in 2003, and became an official developer in May 2005.

Psi (pronounced sigh [saɪ]) is an abbreviation of the word psynergy , which is like psychic energy. Since psi is also the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet (Ψ), that s why Psi uses the Greek symbol as the logo.

=See also=

*List of instant messengers *Comparison of instant messengers

=External links=

*[http://www.psi-im.org/ Official Psi website] *[http://www.kismith.co.uk/wordpress/ Psi Maintainer s blog] *[http://halr9000.com Psi Webmaster s blog] *[http://blogs.openaether.org/index.phpp=45 Interview with Justin Karneges]