Google Talk, Skype, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, and other instant messaging applications often use proprietary protocols that make it difficult for others to write Python modules that can interact with these programs. But even these proprietary protocols can’t stop you from writing a GUI automation tool.
The Google Talk application has a search bar that lets you enter a username on your friend list and open a messaging window when you press ENTER. The keyboard focus automatically moves to the new window. Other instant messenger applications have similar ways to open new message windows. Write a program that will automatically send out a notification message to a select group of people on your friend list. Your program may have to deal with exceptional cases, such as friends being offline, the chat window appearing at different coordinates on the screen, or confirmation boxes that interrupt your messaging. Your program will have to take screen-shots to guide its GUI interaction and adopt ways of detecting when its virtual keystrokes aren’t being sent.
