[Licq-devel] Replacing MSN plugin?

Hi,
I've been looking into making the MSN plugin use a newer protocol 
version so we can get some more features in it. But after looking at 
some other clients code it seems like a lot of work just to get through 
the authentication steps.
So I though, maybe it would be possible to use an existing library for 
MSN support, just like we use gloox for Jabber.
As the current MSN plugin is pretty basic, an existing implementation 
could add a lot for us.

I've had a quick look at libmsn (used by Kopete) and think it might be a 
candidate.
What do you guys think? Should be go for a library or is it better to 
stick with our own implementation? If we replace it, does anyone know if 
libmsn is good/usable/maintained or if there is something better out there?


On a related note, I've been thinking on doing something to improve how 
we handle MSN conversations. As MSN lack simple messages, everything is 
effectively a group chat and I can't figure out how to log history for 
this. As long as it's just two people, it can be handled as instant 
messages like today, but if a third person enters it suddenly becomes a 
group chat and the history should contain all messages, not be split 
between the history for all the participants.
I would like to log group chats (for other protocols as well) and have a 
good way to handle it (both in history files and show it in the gui).
I would also like to keep the illusion of sending instant messages so 
the gui behavior can be consistent with other protocols.

Does anyone have any ideas on how this could be solved? Preferably 
without having separate files for each conversation.

I would really like to have group chat functionality in Jabber, but I 
always get stuck on how to make the api and history generic enough to 
work with MSN.


/Anders

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