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SSB Log Entry 610

Pigeon Protocol Daily Update

Done

  • Fixed a mistake I made in the Lipmaa link implementation

TODO

  • Fix a bug where a message containing \n in a key causes StringScanner to hang indefinitely.
  • Re-order header fields to be more readable
  • Cleanup and documentation

IDEAS WELCOME (Naming Things)

Yesterday I talked about how I want to get rid of SSB-style sigils in favor of ones that are URL-safe and human readable. The idea was well received, but there's some disagreement as to what we should use instead of the current sigils.

Right now, we use @, %, & sigils to represent identities, messages and blobs, respectively.

I had originally proposed changing them to the following:

  • Change @ to feed.
  • Change & to blob.
  • Change % to mesg.

The first two seem to work. The last one was not as popular, mostly based on the feedback that people don't like abbreviating words for various reasons. Eg: makes it harder for non-native English speakers to look it up in a dictionary, and it will act funny in screen readers (though I think the Base32 that follows a sigil would do the same anyway).

I'm not sure what I should use instead of mesg..

  • I don't want to use message. because pigeon multihashes are already longer than SSB multihashes (52 characters, last time I checked).
  • It would be nice if the new sigil is exactly 4 letters long because you can perform string indexing more easily when writing lexers or working in constrained environments / languages with minimal string support. It is also a lot easier on the eyes when multihashes all line up neatly.
  • @kas suggested using post. This is probably what I will use if I can't find a better alternative.

Does anyone have any other ideas? Another alternative I've considered is using single character sigils, such as F for feeds, B for blob, M for message. It's not as readable, but it is more URL safe and only slightly less anglocentric than the current sigils.

I'm open to more ideas. I will probably just go with post. otherwise.

pigeon-protocol