[Libssh] Enhancements proposals

[Rodolphe Rocca]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:38:02 +0100
Aris Adamantiadis <aris at 0xbadc0de.be> wrote:

> Hello everybody
> 
> I am very sorry for being nonresponsive these last months. I had
> work, then holydays, then work, then studies, then procrastination
> that made I didn't take time to maintain libssh or even responding
> mails. I realize this was a very bad thing for every libssh users
> because they would be thinking (at reason) they were in a sinking
> boat. 

Good to see you back Aris :-)

> I still have plans for libssh. I began working on a C++
> version, with a good OOP design that would make possible the kind of
> stuff Rodolphe Rocca explained (even if I haven't think about that
> functionnality before). The work stalled at this point, and I didn't
> want to add functionnalities to the 0.2 code since they were going to
> be rewritten.

Are you sure you want to switch to a C++ version ? I mean, libssh has
 already a good OO design in C, it is not so far from a _very good_
OO design. Furthermore, there is the classical argument in favor of C :
everything can link to it. Personnally I don't see a very strong reason
for a protocol library to use C++.

> 
> More information about the C++ version: it would be the version 0.3.
> I'd keep a small C stub layer to keep compatibility with C apps and 
> previous work using libssh 0.2. So the C version as it is would 
> deprecate (even if I'm certainly going to reuse most of the 10.000
> lines already written).

It's going to be much work to keep both C/C++ API.

> 
> Thus, I think a good action I have to make to repair my lack of 
> attention is to install a correct bug manager (I think about mantis). 
> That way, every bug report and feature request would be kept
> somewhere. Also, I promise working a day or two this week to address
> some of the known bugs and include the patches.

It would be very very good for us if you could setup a git repository
somewhere for source control. And it would be good for you too making
really easy to merge patches and developpers branches.

NB : For those who don't know git is a distributed source management
software used by the Linux kernel, and many of the big free software
projects. 

http://git.or.cz/

> 
> please excuse my apologies. I feel shameful about what (not) happened.

Nothing to be ashamed of. You already did great work on your free time.
From now everything you can do more is bonus :-)