[.NETrilo] Whats going on?

not much! :)

currently i’m working on my diploma thesis.
thats something related to the “USB-RX”-project i wrote before.

but sometimes i need to relax. and what do i do when i’m relaxing?
yeah… programming some unnecessary stuff :)

this time i started .NETrilo, a ventrilo client based on microsoft .NET – i really love .NET, did i tell ya?
at least i love C# – its like C, just much more comfortable. unlike C++ it has a much cleaner design.
as you know CEntrilo was just a dirty hack… really ugly code hacked together. ugh…

so i started .NETrilo as a multi-protocol ventrio client using plugins.
each ventrilo protocol (or maybe others?) is loaded as a seperate DLL – v2.3 is the first i’m doing now (“prot_Vent23.dll”).
also the GUI will be based on plugins. you can load “ui_Forms.dll” and/or “ui_WPF.dll”, maybe also “ui_GTK.dll” etc.

why plugins?

well, i’m not sure for whom this client is interesting, so i decided to place all the platform/protocol dependent things in loadable plugins:

  • is it the normal Win32 user who just wants some nifty feature .NETrilo will get?
    maybe the LUA support i want to implement for user functions?
    or the possibility to connect to different ventrilo server versions in parallel with just one client?
    or is it just the feeling to use a plugin-customizable client..?
  • or is it the Linux/OS X/*.unix gaming user who wants to use a *cough* little bit more native client?
    a client that supports PTT using a native plugin named “inp_X11.dll”?
    or uses a native GUI using “ui_GTK.dll”?
  • perhaps it will be the average Windows Mobile 5/6/7 user who just wants to have a better client :)
  • (dreaming now…) or some symbian-freak who has the latest .NET environment installed and also wants to speak with his ventrilo-friends…

what?

ok, the last two are really some “maybe-it-works” points. really have no clue if i can get the code efficient enough to run on a symbian phone…
or if i can manage to decode the GSM packets somehow on this platform.
but i’m trying to push .NETrilo into this direction.
at least i want not to sit in front of my computer saying “idiot, why didn’t you….” when trying to port it to symbian/WinCE.

btw:
anyone an idea where to get a C# implementation of the GSM algo? don’t want to port that ugly C code to C# :(
or does anyone know how to get and interface a GSM codec on symbian phones using .NET?

now you ask what currently works?

hmmm not much :)

  • i can connect to ventrilo v2.3 servers using username/password
  • receive the list of users and channels
  • have some kind of GUI that looks like ventrilo but just has a functional “Connect” button
  • not more yet :)

the next steps are really no big problems – just writing some boring GUI code…
…and some porting of CEntrilo code to cleaner C# code.

when will it work?

no idea, really :)
i will update you if there are some news.
but first i have to finish my diploma thesis :-/

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