Re: services (Re: ircd FAQ)

[Bjorn Reese <breese@xxxxxxxxx>]

Are there any services available now?

I have been working on a new framework for a daemon-like program for
several months. This daemon is programmed partly in C++ and partly in
Perl5 (which has been properly integrated, ie.  you can call Perl subs
from C++, and you can call C++ functions from Perl.)  Currently the basics
are done, and it is able to connect to an IRC server, but it's just an
empty shell at the moment.

I have over two years of experience in programming IRC clients from the
Dancer project (http://www.imada.ou.dk/~breese/dancer/ or have a look at
DanServ on #Danmark - yes, I do have permission to run it). The new daemon
is made from scratch but with all the experience of the Dancer project in
the bag.

At this very moment I am standing at a cross-road. While my emphasis on
the Dancer project has been to provide services to the users (not just
channel guarding) I don't think the world need yet another bot. And
especially with the flexibility that Perl offers, it is very likely to
spawn all sorts of channel guarding, fludnets, and similar things that I
wouldn't feel comfortable with. Doing a normal client has the same
problems attached to it (mIRC 7th Sphere anyone?) and I don't like doing
GUIs.

Server services seems to be the salvation for me. Unfortunately the
documentation (at least in ircd2.9.2) is somewhat defective, and it is
difficult to get an overview of the capabilites of services by reverse
engineering ircd.

I would like to obtain as much information as possible about these,
including existing examples/sourcecode if possible. I would also like to
receive suggestions of services that people would like to have. First I
would probably implement the useful services of Dancer, ie. conversion
between different measurement units, timezones, currencies, country codes,
and perhaps also spell checking and webster lookups.