[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Chat Functionality with Jabber

[Reinier Post <rp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry to reply so late, this community isn't all that big.

On Thu, May 02, 2002 at 02:03:05PM -0400, Adam Theo wrote:

> 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.

See Help->Chatline for how it works and /help for how server commands work.
It is overly simple, and there have been lots of good plans on how to
improve 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).

It looks as if Jabber could bring some real improvements to Freeciv.
But bringing in complex technology like that conflicts with the Freeciv
goals of being very portable and lightweight.  To give you an idea:

 + Freeciv compiles on 10 year old Unix installations
 + Freeciv is popular on Amiga
 + I used to host 6 player Freeciv games over a 28k8 modem connection
 + Freeciv has features to improve playing over high-latency connections
  (asynchronous mode, server+side goto)

> I believe Jabber would be an excellent solution for FreeCiv's chat 
> functionality *at least*.

Yes, but does Freeciv want to be a chat client?  How portable is this
Jabber software?  How expensive is it in size and bandwidth?

> 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.

All of these would be very nice to have for Freeciv.  But it seems
more logical to think of it in the opposite direction: Freeciv
as a plug-in to a chat system.  Some chatters would get
together, agree on the settings, and start a Freeciv game,
at which point everybody would get a Freeciv client and the
Freeciv server would start the game.  Does Jabber support this?

I don't think you want to Jabberize the Freeciv client/server interaction.

> 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).

You mean IRC?

>      * 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.

Like IRC?

>      * 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.

Like IRC?

>      * 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.

This is very nice, and another argument to think of Jabber as something
that should stay outside of Freeciv, and interface with it.

> * 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.

Well, do you have any specific propositions?
Do you want a list of wish items for Freeciv that may or may not
be delegated to Jabber?

-- 
Reinier Post
the Netherlands