Gregory's ServerInstant messaging has existed for about as long as the internet itself, yet there still isn't a sane IM protocol. Every single one out there is bizarre in its own way.
(brought to you by me working on yet another Telegram contest)
 9 comments
- MTProto: once you've figured out the docs written by Nikolay Durov (no small feat!), you realize that chat rooms come in two flavors. Also the "TL" binary serialization is properly weird sometimes. There's a protocol message acknowledgement mechanism on top of TCP. Sometimes you receive "updates" (events) out of the blue, sometimes you have to ask for them, sometimes API calls return them. - Whatever VK does: it's not an "instant messaging protocol", but instead it's a group of API methods. You receive events in real time via long polling, and you do everything else through the API.   @grishka  @termonoid @grishka |
- Matrix: the absolutely bonkers state resolution algorithm that's so complex that mathematical notation comes out. No socket support, only HTTP long polling.
- XMPP: no packetization whatsoever, just two endless XML streams. Users can hide their real JIDs in chats for some reason.