Sunday, August 19, 2007

Purple Plugin Pack 2.1.0 and 2.1.1; Plans for 2.2.0

Well, last night I released two versions (yes, two!) of the Purple Plugin Pack. The initial release was 2.1.0, which included a new plugin and the completion of a plugin that's been in our tree for ages. However, what I did not catch in this initial release is the fact that there were files missing from the convbadger plugin that would prevent it from building on any platform. I didn't want a duplicate tag in our monotone database, so instead of trying to rerelease the same version, I just did a quick micro version increment, added the files, tested the new version, then tagged and released 2.1.1. As a result, I called 2.1.1 "The rekkanoryo is an idiot release" to indicate it was largely my stupidity that caused two releases in such close proximity.

That said, I'm sure I'm going to hear complaints because I signed the packages. With the 2.0.0 release, there was a complaint because I signed the package with my GPG key, which has no signatures. Because of that I'm reasonably sure I'm going to hear complaints again about my signature being worthless because there is no relation to the web of trust. To that I have one response--find me a key-signing party within a 45-minute drive of my home and I'll show up with all the identifying documents I need for someone to verify my identity and sign my key. Otherwise, shut up and don't ever complain to me about it. I live in an area where technology seems to be a foreign concept, and anyone having a clue about GPG or any other sort of useful technological tool just doesn't happen. People here have trouble determining whether a website is SSL-secured or not, let alone something more complex. I work a full-time job which does pay my bills but doesn't provide me with the luxury of enough money (or time off at the correct times!) to travel to random conferences where I would be presented with keysigning opportunities. Because I attended a local school for postsecondary education, I didn't exactly gain exposure to any keysigning opportunities there either.

With that out of the way, I'll get to my plans for Purple Plugin Pack 2.2.0. I have a few things in mind:
  1. Merge autorejoin and irc-more. Autorejoin is IRC-specific, as is irc-more, so there is no need to have two plugins whose function is to enhance IRC.
  2. Add processing capabilities for libpurple's blist.xml file into the listhandler plugin so that users who have managed to destroy their server-side buddy lists can import their backed-up blist.xml file to restore the server-side list.
  3. Split the alias list support that was patched into listhandler into its own files.
  4. Hopefully finish the smartear plugin integration work I've had on the back burner for way too long.
I'm already working on item #1 there. At this rate, I might have the entire list done in weeks instead of eons.