Re: [GNUnet-developers] GSoC

[Daniel Golle]

Hi,

I wanted to share my thoughts on two of the proposed GSoC topics for a
while, now finally I remebered it in the right moment ;)

On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 10:53:56AM +0100, Martin Schanzenbach wrote:
> On Tue, 2016-02-16 at 09:50 +0100, carlo von lynX wrote:
> > On 02/15/2016 12:11 PM, Martin Schanzenbach wrote:
> > > RESTful GNUnet
> > [...]
> I already started a REST plugin framework and a handful of APIs for my
> own use. If you have requirements for a specific set of APIs from
> GNUnet then it would be good if you could file a bug report so we can
> keep track of what is needed first. Moving the _whole_ GNUnet API to
> REST with a well designed HTTP-style API and good documentation should
> be the goal of this GSoC. The task is not very sophisticated/innovative
> but a nice exercise in SE and API design and it's a great way to get to
> know what GNUnet does, and how, I think.

Why are you specifying it to HTTP-based at all?
I believe a *re-usable* JSON-RPC, which could either be accessed via
HTTP but just as well using a local socket or existing message-passing
systems like ubus, dbus, ... would be better and avoid duplicate work.
>From the OpenWrt-perspective, integration with OpenWrt's ubus would be
great and could work with the same JSON API as for REST -- just that
there is no need for HTTP.

> > > > [...]

> > > > Integration of the GNU Name System with GnuPG
> > > > Mentors: Matthias Wachs, Christian Grothoff, Jeff Burdges
> > 
> > Again more energy thrown at the broken client/server system.
> > I think the way to bring e-mail users to the table is a
> > completely different one: Emulate an IMAP/SMTP/POP server
> > on the gnunet node and transparently repack it all to run
> > over GNUnet/PSYC. We can even recycle code from the Bitmessage
> > folks that already did this.

Generally sounds great, but as PSYC is real-time only, what if the
node on the other side is currently offline? Eg. I generally like
to have everything turned-off while I'm sleeping, safe energy and
bandwidth in hours where it obviously can only harm (ie. disturb
my sleep with blinkenlights or harddrive noises). However, people
do send emails to me while I'm sleeping and I do appreciate to
receive them (once I'm awake). Correct me if I'm missing something, but
to me it seems as this cannot be achieved with PSYC, right?


Cheers


Daniel