annotate PROGRAMMING_NOTES @ 5351:2aa7e4237142

[gaim-migrate @ 5727] Buddy icon support! The MSN protocol does not support this, but it does allow for different content-types, which no client (except a couple broken ones I can name) will see. So, I managed to extend the protocol a bit to do buddy icons. It should work like AIM. Setup your icon in your account editor, and message somebody. If they change their icon, however, you will have to close the conversation window, re-open it, and send another message. That's just how it has to work for now, I'm afraid. Oh, and another thing. MSNP7 (P6 as well? Not sure) times out inactive conversations after 5 minutes. Right now, you're seeing "User has closed the conversation window" messages, but they're really not. So, we now print out a message saying it timed out. Ugly, yes, but unless we have both messages, there's confusion. Oh well! Kick the hay! committer: Tailor Script <[e-mail]>

Notes on keeping GAIM OS independant
------------------------------------

General
-------
- Use G_DIR_SEPARATOR_S and G_DIR_SEPARATOR for paths

- Use g_getenv, g_snprintf, g_vsnprintf

- Use gaim_home_dir instead of g_get_home_dir or g_getenv("HOME")

- Make sure when including win32dep.h that it is the last header to
  be included.

- Open binary files when reading or writing with 'b' mode.

  e.g: fopen("somefile", "wb");

  Not doing so will open files in windows using defaut translation mode. 
  i.e. newline -> <CR><LF>

Paths
-----

- DATADIR, LOCALEDIR & LIBDIR are defined in wingaim as functions.
  Doing the following will therefore break the windows build:

  printf("File in DATADIR is: %s\n", DATADIR G_DIR_SEPARATOR_S "pic.png");

  it should be:

  printf("File in DATADIR is: %s%s%s\n", DATADIR, G_DIR_SEPARATOR_S, "pic.png");

- When writing out paths to .gaimrc, use wgaim_escape_dirsep. This is necessary
  because the Windows dir separator '\' is being used to escape characters, when
  paths are read in from the .gaimrc file.

PLUGINS & PROTOS
----------------

- G_MODULE_EXPORT all functions which are to be accessed from outside the
  scope of its "dll" or "so". (E.G. gaim_plugin_init)

- G_MODULE_IMPORT all global variables which are located outside your
  dynamic library. (E.G. connections)

  (Not doing this will cause "Memory Access Violations" in Win32)