[JDEV] Lurker Steps Forward

[Temas <temas@tamu.edu>]

Well I talked on this list for a while when it first started, and then I
lurked for a long time mainly due to school and other projects.  A long
while back there was talk about the AIM transport.  I work a lot with aim
and libfaim because I code on two aim clients (gtkfaim and the yet
released bullseye).  I was beginning to picture the transport in my head
because I don't think it would be that hard to quickly put together but
there is one problem.  AIM believes that each user has a single
connection.  To connect to aim your first must connect to an authorizer
type facility and login, then you get tossed over to a new IP that acts as
your server.  Once all that is complete you are actually online.  This
makes it slightly difficult for the transport to handle multiple users.  I
have thought of a few solutions to this and thought I would throw them out
here before I start coding because each requires a different
implementation.

1)  Have the transport open a new connection for each users duration of
activity.  This is possible with the library I use (libfaim) and I believe
with the TOC protocol, but this is going to cause a lot of connections to
open, especially on a large system.  I see this as a last ditch effort to
get a working transport.

2)  Have the transport open multiple connections to AIM but set a timeout
on them so that they will die off and not just idle taking up sockets ont
he server.  There are a few things that have to be watched in this
scenario, the connection rate cannont be too fast or AIM get's mad and
will not let you connect for a while.  Also this would require some sort
of password storing so that the user does not get angry and have to enter
their password every time they wish to relogin to AIM to send a message
(although some security nuts like myself really wouldn't mind).

It's late and my mind is kind of warped, so this is the best I could come
up with.  The only other problem that crossed my mind (I remember this in
old mailing list conversation) is the problem of allowing jabber users to
create a new aim user.  This is less of a problem than is with ICQ because
AIM does not a have a direct facility to signup other than the web page,
so it seems that the user would have to create a user on their own to be
able to use this.  Anyway, these are my warped thoughts and I would really
appreciate comments and especially new ideas for the connections to AIM.
If I'm stepping on anyones toes or others would like to help me be sure to
contact me.

--Thomas Muldowney