[JDEV] More avatar thoughts

[Jens Alfke]

On Tuesday, September 4, 2001, at 09:51 AM, temas wrote:

> Ok, I've put the avatar spec up on core.jabber.org (URL: 
> http://core.jabber.org/avatar.txt) for easier access by everyone.

Thanks. Could you update this to include the support for public-XML 
access, since I think there is consensus that this is a good thing? (We 
do need to settle on a namespace for it; I suggest "jaber:iq:avatar" or 
is the intentional misspelling going to cause confusion?)

> I was talking with some people and they brought up the valid point of 
> why don't we just use OOB for the icon transfer (after failing the 
> public xml).

Oog. I strongly dislike this idea, primarily because OOB is still not 
fully worked out — I've heard all kinds of workarounds to the 
firewall/NAT issue but none of them are really ready for prime time yet 
as far as I can tell. Also, it seems like a waste to me to have to fire 
up an HTTP micro-server, open a socket, potentially negotiate transfer 
directions or contact a relay server, etc. ... just to transfer a damn 
2kbyte JPEG. Sure, I agree that the Jabber server shouldn't be in the 
business of transferring everyone's MP3 files around, but for tiny 
little stuff like this I don't see the overhead as significant.

--Jens