[jdev] Clock system to fallow discussion

[Alexey Nezhdanov]

Monday, 05 Spetember 2005 09:02 Trejkaz wrote:
> Quoting Alexey Nezhdanov <snake at penza-gsm.ru>:
> >> There is a feature I would really like to see in jabber, it's a "clock
> >> system" to specify to which message you reply to. This system has been
> >> used succesfully for years in tribune like
> >> http://linuxfr.org/board/ (you need to register to post, but you can
> >> see how it work without posting)
> >> or http://l.leguyader.free.fr/board/ (this one is mine, no need to
> >> register to use, but don't use it to much, it's a little one)
> >
> > I have looked for both sites but didn't understand how it wors. Why you
> > need two timestamps?
>
> The first timestamp is the time of the message itself.  The second
> timestamp is
> the time of the message which is being responded to.  This way you get a
> kind of threading.
>
> FWIW, it would be better to use message IDs than timestamps.  Those demos
> highlight the problem reasonably well: when you have multiple messages at
> the same time and someone replies to one message, you can't tell which
> message they
> replied to.  Switch to message IDs, and come up with some extension
> element, and
> this would work *in theory*.
>
> In practice, most users wouldn't bother marking which message they're
> replying to, so it would all fall down in a giant heap.
Well, now I can get what you are aiming for. It is probably really good 
feature, but I do not sure that this worths including to protocol in it's 
current form because of the problem that you described (overlapping 
timestamps).
Also I can not imagine how it can be done since clients only have one field to 
type in: text of message. Probably this can be done only on client side 
(read: only few in MUC will show such behaivoir).


-- 
Respectfully
Alexey Nezhdanov