How to make a chat messenger using Java

[Rohan Baweja]

Hi,has any one been working on a chat messenger (yahoo/msn) or chat client( mirc ) ? I am trying to find out all about how they work and what would be the most efficient way to implement one using Java.
I dont want to start developing one of my own but i would certainly like to contribute and learn from any existing projects. Please mail me.

[Mark Herschberg]

One of my old companies created a chat program. It was pretty straight forward. In fact, a general intro to Java book I had as far back as 1997 (maybe even earlier) had a chat example at the end. It was trivial, but demostrated the basic principle. There's nothing overly complicated about them; once you understand the basic idea and know Java well, you can write one.
I'd also guess there's at least one Java based open source chat program out there.

--Mark