Chat
A simple chat implemented in several programming paradigms.
- Dynamic OOP (Ruby)
- "Dynamic" actor model (Scala/Akka)
- Functional core and pipelines (Haskell)
Protocol specification
This simplistic and informally specified protocol is somewhat inspired in IRC but don't take it too seriously as this is just a proof of concept for comparing programming paradigms.
Generalities
The protocol is client-server, TCP-based and text (ASCII) oriented. There is just one channel all the clients will be connected.
Each message will consist of a single line of at most 255 bytes. If a longer line is sent to the server, the connection will be terminated. Empty lines will be ignored with no consequence.
Commands
Commands are messages sent from the client to the server. They start with an
uppercase command name (e.g. NICK) and, depending on the command, space
separated arguments. All commands will have a response consisting in a
three-digit status and an optional status message. Example:
NICK sortega
200 OK
The status code 400 is reserved to respond to unrecognized/unsupported commands. Some commands have more than one consecutive response message (e.g. listing the people in the chat when it is crowded).
NICK
This command allows a user to check their nick.
Response codes:
- 201
<current nick>
NICK <nick>
This command allows a user to identify himself. Nicks must have at most 10
characters that must be letters, numbers, _ or -. Users will have an
autogenerated nickname until properly identified (e.g. anon101)
Response codes:
- 200 Nick name accepted
- 301 Malformed nick
- 302 Nick name in use
MSG <message...>
This command will send a message to the single and one chat channel.
Response codes:
- 200 Message accepted
NAMES
Requests a listing on the connected users.
Response codes:
- 202
<nick>*Complete or rest of the list of nicks - 203
<nick>*Part of the list of nicks. It will be followed by another response with code 200 or 201
QUIT [<parting message>]
Exits the channel and therefore the chat. The optional parting message will be notified to the other users if present.
Response codes:
- 200 Command acknowledged. Connection will be closed from the server side after this response code is sent.
KICK <nick>
Kicks an user out of the chat. This was reserved for ops in IRC but we want to democratize fun!
Response codes:
- 200 Bon voyage
- 303 Unknown user
Notifications
Unlike commands, notifications are initiated by the server side. They allow the client to receive other users messages and some other information. Notifications can come while waiting for a command response but, in no case, a notification will break a command response in two.
MSG <author>: <message...>
Notification of a message sent by another user. User messages won't be echoed back in form of MSG notifications.
JOINED <nick>
Notification of new user joining the channel.
RENAME <old_nick> <new_nick>
Notification of user rename.
LEFT <nick>
Notification of an user leaving the chat.