Unifying status messages?

[kpreid]

Has anyone invented a common protocol for, in a desktop environment, updating status (available/away/do-not-disturb and “what I'm doing” and so on) in social applications? I have 5 different such applications (iChat, Colloquy, Skype, MudWalker, Steam), and I usually don't bother to update all of them since it's too much trouble to do regularly. Is there some protocol that, say, the Linux-on-the-desktop folks have invented for having just one widget to inform everything?

[edit] Clarification: I mention Linux-on-the-desktop just because I don't know much aboutit and there seems to be some innovation from that direction in this kind of area. The desktop in question is Mac OS X; I'm expecting to have to write the software myself; I just want to not reinvent the wheel with regard to protocol.

Comments

Growl-alike

[https://me.yahoo.com/a/3zxo7ogthJRFoOsngKESUNjFqbYFGqI-#d4fd5 (from livejournal.com)]

Mac users have long had Growl (http://growl.info); I don't know how long it's been around, but there's apparently a Windows clone (http://www.growlforwindows.com). Growl is open source, so maybe one could grovel around in the innards and dig up something for Linux?

See also (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=21064).

Re: Growl-alike

[kpreid.livejournal.com]

Er, those are tools for notifying me. I want a widget with an "Available/Away/[...]" choice I can select and it automatically sets my status (that other people see) in all the aforementioned applications (or as many as I can manage to script or modify).

[bitjuggler.livejournal.com]

Closest thing I can think of is something using dbus. There might be a standard dbus kind of event or signal you can send that tells any dbus-enabled apps your status. No clue if that would work under MacOS.

[nakor.livejournal.com]

The closest I know is AppleScript. tell application "iChat" to set status to available.

[(Anonymous)]

Or you could use an all-in-one IM client like Pidgin that supports all the protocols already. And then you could set the status and it applies to all the accounts.

[mmol-6453.livejournal.com]

In the alternate approaches category, I use ping.fm. I'm uncertain how many of those protocols it supports, though.

Ubuntu

[https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmu_lSt5bjvbG7CsAursh06g3KCr-Mlr0k (from livejournal.com)]

Ubuntu has had one for the last 2 releases, although they keep changing it.

The current package is indicator-applet-session. I think it communicates to several known IM clients through DBus.