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@ -9,14 +9,59 @@ author: |
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email: gergely@polonkai.eu |
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--- |
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In the last few months I've been working for a GLib based SDK for |
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In the last few months I’ve been working on a GLib based SDK for |
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client applications that want to communicate with a Matrix.org |
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homeserver. |
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For whoever doesn't know it, Matrix is a decentralized network of |
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For whoever doesn’t know it, Matrix is a decentralized network of |
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servers (Homeservers). Clients can connect to them via HTTP and send |
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messages (events, in Matrix terminology) to each other. They call them |
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events because these messages can be pretty much anything from instant |
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messages through automated notifications to files or, well, actual |
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events (like as a vCalendar); anything that you can serialize to JSON |
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can go through this network. |
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messages (events, in Matrix terminology) to each other. They are |
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called events because these messages can be pretty much anything from |
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instant messages through automated notifications to files or, well, |
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actual events (such as a vCalendar); anything that you can serialize |
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to JSON can go through this network. |
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My original intention was to integrate Matrix based chat into |
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Telepathy, a DBus based messaging framework used by e.g. the GNOME |
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desktop (more specifically Empathy, GNOME's chat client.) After |
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announcing my plans among the Matrix devs, I quickly learned some |
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things: |
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1. they are more than open to any development ideas |
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1. they really wanted to see this working |
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1. they would have been happy if there were a GLib or Qt based SDK |
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With my (far from complete) knowledge in GLib I decided to move on |
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with this last point, hoping that it will help me much when I finally |
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implement the Telepathy plugin. |
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## Matrix devs are open minded |
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What I learned very quickly is that Matrix devs are very open minded |
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folks from different parts of the world. They are all individuals with |
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their own ideas, experiences and quirks, yet, when it comes to that, |
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they steer towards their goals as a community. Thus, getting |
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additional information from them while reading the spec was super |
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easy. |
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## The specification is easy to understand |
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Except when it is not. For these cases, see the previous point. |
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Jokes asidu, anyone who worked with communications protocols or JSON |
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APIs before can get along with it fast. The endpoints are all |
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documented, and if something is unclear, they are happy to help |
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(especially if you patch up the spec afterwards.) |
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## Copying the SDK for a different language is not (always) what you want |
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I started my SDK in C, trying to mimic the Python SDK. This was a |
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double fail: the Python SDK was a volatile WiP, and C and Python are |
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fundamentally different. |
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During the upcoming weeks this became clear and I switched to the Vala |
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language. It is much easier to write GObject based stuff in Vala, |
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although I had to fall back to C to get some features working. I also |
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planned and implemented a more object oriented API, which is easier to |
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use in the GObject world. |
