https://github.com/sierrasoftworks/chat

A simple chat protocol to practice writing network servers and clients
https://github.com/sierrasoftworks/chat

chat exercise golang protocol

Last synced: about 1 month ago
JSON representation

A simple chat protocol to practice writing network servers and clients

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/sierrasoftworks/chat
• Owner: SierraSoftworks
• License: mit
• Created: 2018-05-27T18:21:30.000Z (over 6 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2020-06-14T13:04:16.000Z (over 4 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-06-21T06:17:27.019Z (8 months ago)
• Topics: chat, exercise, golang, protocol
• Language: Go
• Homepage:
• Size: 12.7 KB
• Stars: 1
• Watchers: 3
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

        
# Chat

**A simple chat protocol to practice programming**

![](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1760260/40576922-aee42886-60f5-11e8-8f53-2d3111217d71.gif)

Chat (en. "cat") is a simple chat protocol meant to be implemented as a means to learn network programming

and intended to be cross-platform compatible, easy to parse and simple to test.

## Protocol

Chat's protocol is composed of a command type, followed by zero or more string arguments. These commands are represented in text format, making it easy for a

person to visually debug issues or test using tools like `nc` or `telnet`.

Commands are stateless, which helps keep the client and server as simple as

possible while also easing debugging. There is also (currently) a single global

chat room to which all clients are connected, again, simplifying the server

implementation.

```

.msg sender "This is my message"

```

For a more comprehensive description of the protocol's grammar and available commands,

please look at the [PROTOCOL.md](PROTOCOL.md) file.

## Reference Implementation

There is a reference implementation of the client, server and protocol parser written

in Go. Most of these components are somewhat over-engineered with the objective of

making them easily testable and extensible for future expansions to the protocol and

feature-set of *Chat*. It is highly likely that these implementations could be

shortened down to a few dozen lines of code.

You can download pre-compiled versions of the *Chat* binaries on the

[releases](https://github.com/SierraSoftworks/chat/releases) page if you wish to

use them for testing your own clients or servers.