Hello, PlanetKDE!

My blog has just been added to PlanetKDE, so I'd like to say hi to everyone! ..and tell something about what I do for KDE development.

I'm one of the main developers of KMess, a MSN Messenger client for KDE. You can say KMess brings an "MSN Messenger like experience" to Linux without copying the annoying parts. I tried all clients when I started with Linux in 2003, and really loved the user interface of KMess. It felt much like MSN, but even better.

With my next entries I hope to get more technical, show some screenshots, or post idea's about Linux. I'm curious how this will all work out.

introducing...

I'm from the Netherlands, 23 years old, code webapplications for a living and have a passion for KDE (following the dot, blogs and akademy screencasts closely), and started contributing to KMess in 2004. This started because I liked every part of KMess; both UI design and code. It was very easy to jump in.

Currently we're finishing up KMess 1.5. It includes a lot of bugfixes and we got rid of more annoyances too. With the next release (either 1.6 or 2.0) we'll implement webcam and multimedia support. I actually hoped to have 1.5 out already to leave KDE 3 with a good 1.6 release, but it's likely we'll be porting to KDE 4 instead because of the multimedia requirements.

We all know Kopete is part of KDE, and KMess exists outside the KDE SVN. I don't actually mind this; it's good to have one standard client shipping, even posted some bugzilla comments for Kopete. The bottom line is that KMess got me started with KDE development. If you need more explanation then this, you're welcome to post a comment though!

something about msn

One of the most difficult parts of the MSN protocol is the client-to-client part (MSN P2P). It's used to exchange pictures, emoticons, files and all other kinds of invitations directly between two contacts. It's what makes most clients distinguish from each other. Not getting this part right means webcam sessions and file transfers break when someone sends an emoticon or changes their avatar. The reverse-engineered documentation help a lot, but I keep noticing they miss practical details you'll encounter as developer. In KMess, I actually had to refactor the MSN P2P code three times before I saw the whole overall design of it. I've been told Mercury's counter is at 6 now. That's something new MSN plugins can avoid, and I don't mind sharing my experience about that!

A lot of energy has been put in good support for MSN P2P in KMess, and the code works really well. It means we're ready to build stable webcam sessions in the next release. Combined with the APIDOX examples the P2P code is almost a reference guide to implement MSN P2P. Worth checking out!

Happy KMess'ing or .. Kopete'ing!