Friday, December 18, 2015

Down from the tower.

OK. That's one time too many. Or even, quite too many times too many.

My beloved Eiffel compiler is really not production ready. It is the right tool to test ideas, but it is too brittle. The compiler was a very good one 15 years ago; but it did not evolve and is now quite behind the times.

Hacking on that compiler cannot stay a priority anymore. Let's face it, I am not up to the challenge. I feel like Atlas, trying to carry the thing on my frail shoulders.

Each time I try to make pwd evolve, I need to fix the compiler, or some standard library.

That needs far too much work and my patience is quite over.

I need my password manager. And I need it now. I want to use the man power I own (i.e. one our two hours per day, max) to make the best password manager ever. And no, I don't want to use a standard one, at least because it is the software I want to completely control.

So I will start anew.

My needs:
  • Using standard technologies, so that others can contribute. I will use the lingua franca of free software: C.
  • Using as many standard libraries as possible.
  • Using an event-driven model, because I want to avoid threading issues. Not decided yet: zmq, libuv?
  • Whenever relevant, build reusable libraries. That begins with libcad and yacjp.
  • Good security, especially cryptography-wise. I still want to be able to exchange passwords between my server and a web client. I need layers of security above https which is the bare minimum.
I also need a name. Ideas are welcome :-)

I think I will not write again in this blog before next year. So merry Christmas to all, have a good time with your loved ones, and happy hacking!

PS– That does not mean that I completely forsake Liberty; I will gladly help people whenever such help is wanted. But hey! Judging from the current mail flow, it should not take a lot of my time. And that's an understatement.

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