[Techtalk] Recruiting :^)

[Meredydd]

Hey all,
	Those who know me will already know this, and will probably have seen 
this type of message a good couple of times already. Apologies to them, 
it's pretty much the same old, same old. But, for anyone else:

	I am the lead developer on EB-Lite, the codename for the next 
generation of the Everybuddy instant messenger. Everybuddy is a 
universal instant messenger - the idea is to integrate several 
different IM services (AOL, ICQ, MSN, etc) in one program. EB-Lite 
changes the whole architecture: the core, which handles messaging, 
buddy lists, processing, and so on, is headless. Instead, it 
communicates over TCP with any number of user interfaces, which handle 
interaction with the user, and making everything look pretty.

	The advantage? The interface can be anywhere. We have interfaces in 
development using the Qt toolkit, Cocoa, pure HTML, and even one for 
your mobile phone!

	OK, so why am I sending this out? Put bluntly, we want developers. We 
are now within spitting distance of a beta release that can be pitched 
to the World At Large, and I'd like help making this happen. What are 
we after? Just about anything, really! 

	The core is written in C, and does all the heavy lifting of instant 
messaging. There are only two big items between us and being 
beta-ready: chat logs and file transfer. The core is where I do most of 
my work, but by all means do help out!

	The user interfaces are the real weak point at the moment. Our primary 
interface, EbQt (C++,Qt), is very respectable, but it is the only 
interface so far with the full set of functions. There are others in 
the wings, though:

* ChocoBuddy (Java,Cocoa) lacks contact list management, and group chat 
support
* WebBuddy (Java,Servlet,HTML) is in the same situation
* RoadBuddy (Java,mobile), although lacking contact management, is 
considered "good enough" for the casual use a mobile application is 
likely to receive. Nevertheless, if someone wants to make it something 
more, or take it in a different direaction, I'm all for it.

Of course, if you have your own idea for an interface (or, indeed, a 
single-purpose "interfacelet"), please volunteer! An interface can be 
written in any language, in any environment, as long as it can make a 
TCP connection to the core. If you're interested in developing an 
interface, there are a couple of ideas that only haven't been run with 
because we don't have someone to do it (needless to say, being that 
someone would be very much appreciated):

* something for Windows
* console/ncurses
* an applet of some description, for embedding into a web browser


Non-coding stuff! We like it! Documentation is always a good thing, 
especially with something that doesn't fit the conventions. We're also 
looking to completely rewrite the website (content at very least), so 
someone who can write more fluently than this rather clumsy appeal 
would also be welcomed with open arms.


OK, that's my sales pitch. If you're interested, yell me by private 
email. If it's logistically/socially acceptable, I would also really 
appreciate it if anyone who could would pitch this to anyone they know 
who might be interested, or even their LUG...

Many thanks,
Meredydd