GNU Messenger
Copyright (c) 2002 by Jesse Lovelace.  All rights reserved.
Copyright (C) 2002 Henrik Abelsson. Usage in any form permitted as long as
content remains accurate :)

Portions (Crypto++) Copyright (c) 1995-2001 by Wei Dai.  All rights reserved.
	
OVERVIEW:
GM is yet another instant messanger, with your basic messages, online lists 
and contact features. However, it was designed from the grond up to be 
extensible and secure. The GM protocol is XML based, but with strong
authentication and encryption. The protocol is encrypted using the 
crypto++ lib. [http://www.cryptopp.com]
You can easily write plugins for KiT to add new functions and features - in 
fact, most of the server is implemented using plugins.

The server, and client implementation is licensed under the GNU Public
License (GPL) version 2 or at your option, any later version. Once the 
clientside protocol implementation (libkit) is separated from the client 
(soon!), it will be licenced under the Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL).

FEATURES:
	* Buddy list - See what friends you have online.
	* Messages   - Send a message to someone.
	* Encryption - Make sure no one else reads your message
	* Plugins    - Extend the server and client in any way imaginable. 
	* AIM/ICQ    - Connect to legacy IM networks

SERVER:
The GM server is in an early stage of development, and is evolving quite 
rapidly. Installing it on a mission critical machine is _not_ recommended, 
until it has been thouroly tested. Just a word of warning. 

GM requires a database for storing user info. Currently the only one supported
is MySql (available from tcx.se). Please see the instructions in INSTALL on
how to create the needed tables for kit. Adding new database support is quite
easy, all you need to do is to create a new plugin, there is no need to
modify the server at all.


CLIENT(s): KiT and NNIM

KiT:
The X-Windows client is written using Qt 2. As a result, to run the client 
you need to get Qt [http://www.trolltech.com]. However, our goal is to keep 
the protocol implementation separate from the GUI, and we would welcome 
versions of the client for other enviroments (such as QT/KDE, Console, 
Win32 and Mac).

NNIM:
NNIM is written using the wxWindows toolkit.  It runs on all unix type
environments with X-Windows and/or GTK.  It also compiles on Win32, OS/2
Mac (classic and X).


PROTOCOL:
The GM protocol as it is defined now is not likely to go through any major
changes, but many additions. Since the protocol is XML based it's fairly 
flexible. Current documentation is limited to Read-The-Source 
or Use-a-sniffer :)

PLATFORMS:
All GM code has been developed under i386 Linux, with glibc2.1 (Debian Testing) 
and Win32 on VC7.net. Please help out by trying out KiT on different platforms 
and tell me how it goes :)

CONTACT:
The main authors of GM are Henrik Abelsson <henrik@abelsson.com> 
and Jesse Lovelace <jllovela@eos.ncsu.edu> with help from Emil Styrke. 

If you wish to ask any question about GM or send a bugreport,
please send it either to Henrik or to Jesse. 


Copyright (C) 2002 Jesse Lovelace. All rights reserved.
Copyright (C) 2002 Henrik Abelsson. Usage in any form permitted as long as
content remains accurate :)