Re: [Ekiga-devel-list] On rewriting the text chat stack

[Damien Sandras <dsandras seconix com>]

Hi Julien,

Thanks for getting back into this.

In SIP, I see two basic ways of having Chat sessions :

- Using the SIP MESSAGE request. It works like an SMS. You do not have a notion of "conversation", you just send a simple text message somewhere. That is what Ekiga supports until now.

- Using the MSRP protocol. It works like a "Text Call". You have a notion of "conversation" between two peers and notifications indicating that the remote is typing.

However, MSRP brings more features than simple text chat :

- File Transfer over MSRP

- Screen Sharing over MSRP

You also have extensions :

- Multi-participants chat rooms

- Conference information through the "conference-info" Event package

I think we should keep this in mind, but limit ourselves to 1-to-1 conversations for now.

Le vendredi 09 octobre 2015 à 18:18 +0200, Julien Puydt a écrit :

> Hi,
>
> I would like to help redesign the ekiga chat core. Of course, that means 
> one should have a look at how text chat happens within various protocols 
> beforehand.
>
>
> With IRC (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1459):
>
> - you connect to a server, where you have a nickname, and the server
> will send you messages (welcome, notices...) -- notice you can't
> connect as the same nickname from different places simultaneously ;
>
> - you can then join (and even create) a room [called a channel] where
> you can see the list of members, each with some notion of presence
> (away state), and a notion of role (voice, op). It can have a title
> and you can get kicked or banned from a room, or invited to one ;
>
> - you send messages to a single user, to a list of users or to a room
> and as far as I know the server doesn't send you back your own
> messages (so you have to note them yourself!) ;
>
> - I don't think a one-to-one conversation is more than messages with
> the same person (nickname, in fact) -- so there's no way to have
> various conversations with the same person, and no way to turn a
> one-to-one into a many-many one ; and also in a one-to-many I'm not
> sure recipients know of each other, so they can't just reply to all.
>
>
> With MSN (I haven't found decent&recent documentation):
>
> - you connect to a server with an account, and you can connect to it
> from several places ; I think you can have a nickname on the server ;
> it's also where the contact list is ;
>
> - you can then send one-to-one messages, or join/create rooms
> (multiparty) ; I don't think you can have a room-specific nickname and
> I don't know if the server sends you your own messages ;
>
> - I don't think a one-to-one conversation is more than messages with
> the same person -- so again, no way to have various conversations with
> the same person ;
>
> - I don't know if rooms have title, if there is special presence and
>    roles.
>
>
> With Jabber (http://xmpp.org/):
>
> - you connect to a server, and you can connect to it from several places 
> ; it's
> also where the contact list (named roster) is ; the presence exchange is at
> the server level ;
>
> - you can send messages one-to-one or join/create a room. One-to-many
> exists, but isn't natural (even with XEP-0033) ;
>
> - the interesting thing about one-to-one is that you can either send
> the messages in a one-off fashion or with a threading information (see
> 5.1 in RFC 6121). In this case it's possible to have different
> conversations with the same contact, and it's possible to turn a
> private conversation into a group conversation, which others can join
> (see section 7.9 of XEP-0045 - notice how the client is supposed to
> send the history to the room) ;
>
> - a chat room has a title, a list of occupants with their own presence
> (you might in fact not even know the "real identity" of the occupants:
> the nickname is per-room!) with roles ; it also has a history which
> new joiners will receive.
>
>
> With SIP: here I shall wait for a reply, as I'm definitely not qualified 
> to discuss it at length.
>
> I'm not sure I'm 100% right on all of the above: feedback is welcome!
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Snark
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--
Damien SANDRAS

Ekiga Project
http://www.ekiga.org