#microsoft-agent

If you don’t know what OpenAgent is, then check out my first blog post about it. I am going to release OpenAgent on GitHub soon, but before I do, I think I should explain how it works. (Warning: programming jargon ahead!)

OpenAgent uses JavaFX to display the character. JavaFX is a framework for creating GUI applications in Java (in other words, normal windows that show on the screen).

It uses Dorkbox’s System Tray for the tray icon, to ensure it appears on all systems, and either MaryTTS (the cmu-bdl-hsmm voice) or FreeTTS (the kevin16 voice) for text-to-speech.

I retrieved the animations for Peedy the parrot (currently the only available OpenAgent character) using this MS Agent decompiler. Then, I had my little brother rename the animations and string them together.

To any Java developers perusing this post: All your other questions will be answered when I release OpenAgent on GitHub in a few days.

Here is a screenshot of OpenAgent:

Some of you may remember Clippy, the annoying little paperclip who popped up at the most inconvenient times, or Bonzi, the purple gorilla who told jokes and sang songs, or even Microsoft’s Bob, their failed attempt at making computers easy to use for everyone. Some of you may hold a grudge against these annoying characters, but I love them.

What do those old programs have in common? They all used a (now obsolete) technology called Microsoft Agent, which employs animated characters as a sort of technical support to help users understand how to use programs, or just for fun.

Why am I mentioning this deprecated technology? Because I am currently working on an open-source, cross-platform replacement for Microsoft Agent, called OpenAgent, which I am writing in Java (although I am planning to implement it in other languages soon).

I am not the first, though. Kudos to Cinnamon Software for making Double Agent, which is also an open-source implementation of Microsoft Agent, designed to emulate it. I used Double Agent myself for a while, until I switched to Linux. Smore also made Clippy.js, a JavaScript version.

So why am I making OpenAgent? Because Microsoft Agent has never run on other platforms (except under emulators and compatibility layers like WINE, which isn’t good enough for me).

I want a cross-platform, native Microsoft Agent alternative. And when I say cross-platform, I mean cross-platform. I want OpenAgent to run on all platforms imaginable: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, HP webOS, ReactOS, etc. Of course, there is no programming language yet that works on every one of these platforms (except maybe JavaScript), so I will implement OpenAgent separately for all of them.

And as an homage to the original Microsoft Agent, I and my brother have begun decompiling Microsoft Agent characters and converting them to work with OpenAgent. So far, we have only finished Peedy the green parrot, but more are coming.

So for the first time ever, Microsoft Agent characters will appear on phones and tablets, and natively on Mac and Linux.