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John Brooks 32230b77c1 core: Reuse protobuf structures for configuration 
The existing configuration was partially compatible with Ricochet's,
but not enough to actually be useful. It also required a bunch of
boilerplate code to copy data between configuration data structures,
internal data structures, and RPC data structures.

Protobuf conveniently supports encoding messages to JSON, and we already
need to store most data (e.g. contacts) in protobuf structures. This
commit changes the configuration to be a protobuf JSON serialization of
the Config message, which can directly reuse RPC messages like Contact.

Additionally, the RWMutex-based configuration type was a deadlock
waiting to happen. There is now a read-only clone of the configuration
available atomically at any time. Writers need an exclusive lock on the
ConfigFile object, which commits its changes to disk and readers on
unlock.
 		2017-09-24 16:59:44 -06:00
core core: Reuse protobuf structures for configuration 2017-09-24 16:59:44 -06:00
ricochet-cli core: Reuse protobuf structures for configuration 2017-09-24 16:59:44 -06:00
rpc core: Reuse protobuf structures for configuration 2017-09-24 16:59:44 -06:00
vendor Update go-ricochet to new API (plus fixes) 2017-09-23 19:13:53 -06:00
.gitignore Delete backend and rename cli to ricochet-cli 2016-11-05 16:59:22 -06:00
.travis.yml Add minimal travis config 2016-12-03 16:58:30 -08:00
README.md Delete backend and rename cli to ricochet-cli 2016-11-05 16:59:22 -06:00

README.md

Experimental!

This is an experimental, in-development Ricochet client. If you want something you can use, try the mainline Ricochet.

Compared to the existing Ricochet client, the idea here is to:

  • Implement a client in Go, because it's memory-safe, easier to write and contribute to, and doesn't depend on a huge UI library
  • Split the client into a multiprocess RPC backend/frontend architecture, so that UI implementations can be easily developed in any language/environment
  • Build a code base that is easier and quicker to experiment with
  • Create some forward momentum

This design has some interesting benefits:

  • All network-facing and critical logic is in Go, but frontends can be in any language -- Go currently lacks decent UI frameworks. This could also be useful for mobile applications.
  • The existing Qt UI can be adapted as a frontend, without any UX changes
  • The backend is headless and could be run remotely (over an authorized hidden service, perhaps). Frontends are detachable and interchangable. It's possible to use multiple frontends simultaneously.
  • UI and network components can be sandboxed separately on systems that support it (e.g. Subgraph)

Status

This is not ready or safe to use. Some functionality works if you get a proper environment set up. Development notes are available at in the Projects or Issues tab. Pull requests & thoughts always welcome.

Architecture

core implements Ricochet's client logic. It currently depends on bulb and @s-rah's go-ricochet protocol implementation.

rpc defines a gRPC and protobuf API for communication between the client backend and frontend. This API is for trusted backends to communicate with frontend UI clients, and it's expected that both will usually be on the same machine and invisible to the end-user. Anything capable of speaking gRPC could implement a frontend.

ricochet-cli is a commandline program that acts as a backend and a readline-style CLI frontend. It can be used as a standalone client, to run a headless backend, or to attach to a running backend.