Bite-sized XMPP News
January 31, 2010
Here’s a collection of interesting XMPP-related updates from the microblogging world this week:
@precision’s twitter-xmpp working http://github.com/precision/twitter-xmpp/ !xmpp *
Precision is a simple XMPP to Twitter gateway, and it even supports OAuth. It appears that this brings back the old XMPP functionality of Twitter, although it’s probably not as fast as the real thing used to be. You can also use tweet.im if you’d rather not run your own.
stpeter: Mozilla Weave has hit 1.0, another cool project using XMPP! *
nyconyco: @stpeter I don’t think Mozilla Weave 1.0 has XMPP (found no traces), but I’ve heard it was planned… *
As far as I can tell, Weave currently uses WebDAV currently. Apparently, they are looking to replace that with XMPP eventually.
Meanwhile, Google’s Chrome browser sync will use XMPP. This makes a lot of sense as Google already has a big technical investment in XMPP with Google Talk.
fritzy: Friend, “How do you pronounce !XMPP anyway? “Zump!”” Everyone just says the letters, but I’ll start saying Zump! now. *
stpeter: @frtizy at FOSDEM last year someone came up to the XMPP table and asked “what is Zimpy?” :) *
This made me laugh, but I have to say, I really like “Zump!” too.
laibcoms: Is it just me or #Google Talk doesn’t recognize !XMPP Priority setting? When I send a msg, all logged-on accts receives it #Jabber *
I believe that Google Talk (as well as some other servers lke ejabberd) deliver stanzas to the resource with the highest priority, and in the case of a tie, they will deliver the stanza to all tied resources. The current XMPP specifications allow the server discretion in how to handled tied priorities. This is one of the things being talked about a bit for the upcoming revisions.
I believe most of the XMPP community considers multiple resource delivery in the case of a presence priority tie to be the correct solution. There is some support for making this less ambiguous in the new drafts. Note that this would still be a “SHOULD” and not a “MUST”. It’s best to leave servers flexibility in case new use cases come up.
deetman: Is it time to go home yet? Much xmpp coding to be done! *
I’d love to hear what you’re making. Sounds like you are enjoying your work!
tbielawa: Back on the @erlang train after a little break. Going to master the gen_server module and begin groundwork for PAD-XMPP! *
PAD-XMPP looks like a new XMPP server and client in Erlang, done as a learning project. I’ll have to keep an eye on this!
acscherp: #zotonic #pubsub is coming along nicely… publisher side is already in place. *
Zotonic is an up-and-coming CMS written in Erlang. I’ve been hearing a lot about Zotonic lately, and I hope to have some time to check it out soon.
It’s won’t be the only CMS with XMPP support; Drupal has XMPP support as well.
garethr: looking at the devrooms for FOSDEM: http://www.fosdem.org/2010/schedule/devrooms. Thinking NOSQL and XMPP will keep me occupied *
I’ll probably be right there with you as I’m a huge fan of both. Don’t forget about the XMPP Summit, which is held on the days before and after FOSDEM.
jprieur: Reading about the OSLO protocol, data exchange over #xmpp location-based social networks http://code.google.com/p/oslo-protocol/ *
Johann continues to find new and interesting XMPP projects. I don’t think you’d regret following him if you have an interest in XMPP.
I hadn’t heard this, but it is certainly possible. Does anybody know? For that matter, does XBox 360 use MSN or something custom?
peterneubauer: Project #gargamel is starting. Distributed #graph processing on #xmpp, #gremlin and #linkedprocess. On #rdf, #neo4j, #sail, #linkeddata. *
Linked Process is an interesting project allowing people to do Internet-scale computing in a decentralized way. They use XMPP to enable this, and the programs can be written in many languages. They’ve even started a XEP that describes the protocol.
chrisridd: Adium’s pretty rubbish for MUC chats. Is there a better XMPP client for Macs? *
chaz6: Giving a new #xmpp client called Vacuum IM a spin. So far so good! #qt *
The elusive perfect XMPP client quest will probably never end. It is good to see newcomers into this space; there is certainly a lot of room for improvement even in the very best clients. It looks like Vacuum IM is a project from a group of Russian developers. Let me know what you think of it if you give it a whirl.
adilsonchacon: Studing how Ruby Language works with XMPP. Having a lot of challenges… and fun! http://home.gna.org/xmpp4r/ *
There are a lot of Ruby hackers using XMPP these days, and plenty of great Ruby-based XMPP projects. I suggest keeping an eye on what Pradeep (and his GitHub forks) and Seth (and his Github forks) are up to.
OhCrap: only thing that puzzles me is that gtalk is showing me offline. Is presence a one way thing for XMPP? Maybe just takes time for Google? *
In XMPP, presence subscriptions are directed. Each side must allow the other to subscribe in order to have the traditional friend or buddy relationship in other systems. This is exactly the way Twitter following works.
In the common cases, this two directional nature is often hidden, but it is great when you need to allow bots and services to see your presence without cluttering up your own roster with a reciprocal subscription.
bokner: Erlang behaviour for XMPP client: http://rfid-ale.blogspot.com/2010/01/genclient-behaviour-for-building-xmpp.html *
This looks like a cool projects. It extends Erlang OTP-style behaviors to something that enables easy writing of XMPP clients. It’s based on exmpp and inspired by Strophe. I’ll definitely have to check this out as I’ve been thinking about working on a similar project. The code is available on GitHub.
zuwiki: SleekXMPP is awesome. I just hacked together a (barely functional :P) XMPP client in under 45 lines and 40 minutes without even trying. *
SleekXMPP is a great Python library for programming XMPP clients. I myself prefer Wokkel, but most stories about Sleek are similar to zuwiki’s.
dwc: XMPP is such a heartless protocol in letting me know when people have left the conversation. *
I never thought of it that way, but I suppose it’s somewhat true. It’s also what gives instant messaging much of its appeal. With e-mail, I have no idea if the recipient is around. With XMPP, I know they are there, and while I’m chatting, if they are actually paying attention. These can be helpful clues to ease virtual communication.