[Dxspider-support] Talk command

Dirk Koopman djk at tobit.co.uk
Thu Jul 12 19:46:53 CEST 2007


Lee Sawkins wrote:
> Dirk Koopman wrote:
>> The new protocol has the possibility of finding that elusive talk
>> recipient where there is incomplete routing info about how to get to them.
>>
>> However, that then means that you can't be sure that the recipient
>> actually either is connected somewhere or even exists.
>>
>> The protocol does not get a complete picture of the network until about
>> one hour has passed (it may be less, but not more). This means we have
>> to make a choice: either allow a "broadcast" to find the recipient or
>> only do a "directed" talk if the recipient is in the routing table.
>>

> Would it not be possible to send a message back to the originator of the
> talk "if" the talk message is delivered, rather than one if it is not
> delivered.  Perhaps even a "talk/rr" (return receipt)

Possibly. Although that will increase the talk traffic quite a bit (for 
what I have in mind). It also isn't compatible with other software.

> 
> By the way.   Would it be possible for CC Clusters to exchange broadcast
> talk messages with Spider?  I do not need or want all the node/user
> info.   There is simply too much of it.
> 

There is the whole thing about whether, in the new order of connect 
anywhere and not worry, broadcast routing - we need to have any config 
stuff at all. Maybe a way forward would be to drastically reduce the 
routing broadcasts (some will always be required to keep links alive) to:

a) just nodes and any connecting nodes + tracking interim connects and 
disconnects - same as we have but with no user info.

b) as a) but more frequent updates than once an hour but with no interim 
tracking.

c) just the PC92 equivalent of PC50 (just announcing your node + some 
statistics).

With all of these, one then needs some route discovery messages (a 
"find" call PC92) to enable routing of direct point to point messages 
like personal mail + periodic retries. Talk could be all broadcast. The 
trouble is that, potentially, you could simply replace one sort of 
traffic by another. Remember that there are just now 300 odd node and 
1500+ users - that could generate a lot of "find" messages.

The current setup is designed to allow better routing than we had before 
and I think it achieves that mostly (barring the odd bug that surfaces). 
But is does this by opening routing to the world. And some people don't 
want or are not interested in this. Certainly, "who is where" seems to 
be a lot more accurate than it was.

Mail me offline for the (as yet unwritten) protocol spec and I will see 
what I can do. You should know that there was a restriction until 0.110 
that stopped PC93 being accepted from non-PC9x nodes.

Dirk



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