[Freeciv-Dev] Chat Functionality with Jabber

[Adam Theo <theo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all.

As soon as I realize I'm playing alot of FreeCiv, and then sign up to 
the developers list to see what I can do to help out in my spare time, 
my spare time disappears... I swear, there's some natural law that could 
be explained in a mathematical equation about this.
Anyways, I figure I can at least try to bring in one of my other hobbies 
to this project. Could anyone tell me about the chat functionality 
between players in FreeCiv? I assume it is a plaintext-based protocol 
that was home-grown to serve this need? I was told there are no docs on 
it, but was hoping an expert on the matter could tell me about it.
The reason being my other hobby is Jabber [www.jabber.org], an open and 
free (as in freedom) XML protocol for instant communications. It began 
as an open Instant Messaging platform that could easily be converted to 
other protocols (such as AIM, ICQ, HTTP, SMTP, etc...), but is now being 
used in many places as a middleware protocol to exchange data between 
different legacy systems (precisely because it's easy to convert to 
legacy protocols).
I believe Jabber would be an excellent solution for FreeCiv's chat 
functionality *at least*. It is simple and easy to impliment, there are 
many tools in many languages and under many licenses already out there, 
and the developer community is large and eager to help. I would also 
like to see Jabber used in other areas of FreeCiv, such as possibly 
adding a "presence" mechanism (like Instant Messaging presence) and a 
user/server directory for search & discovery features. I would be more 
than happy to explain in detail what Jabber can do and how it could be 
used, as well as do all of the documentation for FreeCiv's new 
Jabber-based chat system (I'm an odd Open Source/Free Software guy, I 
love doing documentation :-). Just let me know what your concerns and 
questions are, and I'll answer them.
Here are some intro points into Jabber. More details can be found after 
them, below.
    * It was originally modeled after the e-mail system, and its 
architecture is still very similar, with many different Jabber servers 
in the world, each with its own set of users, and all able to talk to 
each other in a distributed client/server system (again, like e-mail).
    * Jabber is an open and free protocol, like SMTP (e-mail), that 
fully uses XML and XML Namespaces [http://www.w3.org/XML/]. Anyone can 
code up their own Jabber server or client, and distribute/use it how 
they want. You don't have to pay any royalty fees or ask permission to 
make something that uses the Jabber protocol.
    * Jabber is an Instant Messaging platform in its own right. As 
mentioned above, its protocol is entirely XML, and as mentioned below, 
it communicates with other IM systems. Jabber does not exist soley to 
communicate with other systems. It exists to ensure that Instant 
Messaging ends up like e-mail: Open and Free.
    * Jabber users are able to "talk" to users on other systems (AIM, 
ICQ, MSN, Y!, IRC, E-mail) by using the server-side Jabber Transports. 
Each server has its own set of Transports (although it doesn't have to), 
and if you don't like the transports on your host server, you can 
"browse" on over to another Jabber server and use its Transports, all 
without creating a new Jabber account on that other server.
    * The non-profit Jabber Software Foundation [http://www.jabber.org] 
(or 'JSF') owns the Jabber protocol for everyone, and it is a 
democratically-run organization with elections every year (I'm 
considering running for a JSF council position myself in a few months).
    * There is a corporate, for-profit entity called Jabber, Inc 
[http://www.jabber.com] that owns the Jabber trademark and employs many 
of the core development team. It was created in an early partnership 
between Webb Interactive [http://www.webb.net] and the early core Open 
Source team in order to bring much-needed funding to the project and 
aquire the trademark from the then-holder (a voice-recognition software 
company). It does not own Jabber, only the Jabber trademark!
    * There is no one "Jabber client" anymore than there is any one 
"E-mail client". What most people (mistakenly!) refer to as "the Jabber 
client" is the "Jabber Instant Messenger" created by Jabber, Inc. It is 
only one of many Jabber clients [http://www.jabbercentral.com/clients] 
for the Windows platform (and in my opinion, far from the best).
* Technology Overview: http://docs.jabber.org/general/html/overview.html
* Programmer's Guide: http://docs.jabber.org/jpg/html/main.html
* And this page has links to the FAQ, some books written on Jabber, 
interviews with developers of the month, and how to develop a Jabber 
server component: http://www.jabber.org/docs/
I'll be watching for responses. Please feel free to ask any questions, 
I'll be eager to answer.
Thanks.  :-)

--
    /\  Adam Theo, Age 22, Tallahassee FL USA
   //\\   Email & Jabber: theo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  //  \\  (Boycotting AOL, therefore no AIM or ICQ)
=//====\\=  Theoretic Solutions: http://www.theoretic.com
//  ||  \\     "Bringing Ideas Together"
    ||      Jabber Protocol: http://www.jabber.org
    ||         "The Coolest IM on the Planet"
    ||  "A Free-Market Socialist Patriotic American
    ||      Buddhist Political Philosopher."