Re: [JDEV] Protocol bits and discussion

[Daniel Arbuckle <djarb@wvc-omak.ctc.edu>]

On Wed, 2 Jun 1999, Jeremie wrote:

> There are some parts of the protocol that haven't been fully defined yet
> as to what their range of values might be.  I'll try to explain my
> intentions for them and we can discuss any variations/changes that need to
> happen.  I'll also post these to the site when ready.

<snip>

> Now, the message packet:
> <message>
> 	<to nick='you'>someone</to>
> 	<thread>sdfa</thread>
> 	<priority>1</priority>
> 	<subject>Did you see that?</subject>
> 	<say>asdgf asdfkjasgoijqwert asdgaldgjkas</say>
> </message>
> 
> ## <to nick='you'>someone</to>
> Contains the recipient id, and the nick attribute suggests a specific
> session of that recipient to send this message to.

Ah. Good thing you documented that, I was misinterpreting the spec.

<snip>

> ## <priority>10</priority>
> This is going to be a tricky and special field, and is required to be sent
> for at least the initial status packet(else it will default to zero). The
> primary use for this field is by the server to determine which "session"
> of a users is the primary one.  So, incoming messages sent to the user
> will be delivered to the primary session. Basically, the lowest positive
> priority is the primary session.  This is so that the priority field can
> roughly estimate minutes idle.  The user should be able to control this
> and any automation, but a client might automatically send a new status
> packet with a higher priority every five minutes or so.  So: 
> <status><say>At Work</say><priority>35</priority></status> would mean this
> user has been away from their desk for 35 minutes.  All priorities below
> zero are for special devices that should not be considered normal
> sessions, such as a pager, and should never be considered a "primary" 
> session.

Ah. Perhaps the increment should be standardized? That way a user could
use different client programs without their screwing up the priority.

<snip>

> I'm getting the feeling that I need to dedicate a whole email to
> explaining statuses, sessions, and how they all work/interact :)

Please do. You've got a system here that is not always intuitively obvious
from reading the DTD :)

Daniel