Hi all,
I don’t get to say this very often, so:
I have started yet another project, Stroodlr!
This time around, the project is written in C++, rather than Python, because I thought it was about time I started seriously learning C+++, and what batter way than to write a program?
I mean, I haven’t given myself an easy task, because it seems sockets programming is a notoriously difficult thing to get right, but I like a challenge 🙂
What IS it?
It’s a local-network chat client, allowing Linux machines on the local network (like a home/small office network) to send messages to each other. In that regard, I guess it’s a little bit like what you can do in Windows PowerShell, though obviously written completely different. I’ve also never even used powershell, so I might be completely wrong here. It runs on the commandline, because I’ve now gotten fed up writing GUIs 😛
Joking aside, I’m sure I will write a GUI for it, but that will come later. Making the program work is the priority XD. It’s a little bit like /bin/mail in Linux, in that in-between client commands, it will tell you if you have new messages. I may also add support for macOS in the future, or even Windows, because I’m trying (somewhat successfully) to keep Stroodlr largely cross-compatible.
What’s with the name?
Yeah… We’ll talk about that later.
How does it work?
Stroodlr utilises a client-server model, where the client the user interacts with uses the server as a message bus. The server then connects to other servers to send messages back and forth. There will also be some other features such as listing other computer available for chat, giving them names rather than having to use IP addresses to communicate, recalling history and so on.
Why did I write it?
Mostly as a challenge for myself, whereas for DDRescue-GUI and WxFixBoot, I wrote them because I thought they would be very helpful for other people. Hopefully this one will be helpful too, but its primary purpose is to teach me C++ in a better way than I can achieve by just reading books.
Summary
Umm, there’s not much else to say. I’m making very good headway, but I don’t know when it’ll be finished. I will most likely make a preview 0.9 release, like I did with my other programs 🙂
Coming up soon is the proper Elementary OS review, so stay tuned!
