[Gaim-devel] Best way of implementing Buddy's Time plugin

[Jon M. <des...@gm...>]

Hi everyone,

I had a look at Steven Garrity's idea for a 'Buddy's Time' plugin
<http://www.actsofvolition.com/archives/2004/december/apluginideafor>,
and I was wondering what the best way of implementing it would be.
Basically, it displays the local time for whoever you're talking to
somewhere in the conversation window.

I can think of two ways of getting the user's time information:

Either
1. Query their location and work out their timezone from that
2. Have them run a plugin that responds to special 'hey, what time is
it over there' messages

The plugin would also provide the ability to add a selected buddy's
timezone information yourself, if they choose not to publish it (and,
of course, you know their timezone already).

The first option has the problem of getting, parsing and working out
the location information, and then working out which timezone we're
talking about (Perth, Scotland is quite different to Perth,
Australia).

The second option has the problem of only working with other Gaim
users who are running the plugin, and an autoresponder may expose
security vulnerabilities.

Also, how should the timezone information be stored locally?

Jon