[impdev] Adding OTR to Imprudence.

[David Seikel]

OTR - Off The Record (which is end to end IM encryption with
deniability) was brought up at the meeting today, though mostly in
private discussion with McCabe.  We thought it best to leave that
discussion to the mailing list.  People are asking for OTR to be added
to other viewers it seems, I'm happy to help with that.

I kinda volunteered to help put out a final release of Imprudence if the
team decides to go with Kokua an Sunday.  Either way, I think this
would still apply.

Long ago Chris added OTR to meta-impy, which is my fork of Imprudence
1.4.  I helped out a bit with the UI stuff.  We did not quite have it
ready in time for the 1.4 feature freeze, so it did not make it in.  On
the other hand, in the long time since that feature freeze, other new
features have been added to Imprudence.  I guess the feature freeze is
over?  McCabe thought it would be OK to add OTR into Imprudence.

OTR in meta-impy was based on the Emerald version (which Chris had done
to start with).  It was actually quite easy to slip it into meta-impy,
almost worked first time.  Since then, we polished it, and it has been
working fine.  At least as good as the Emerald version.  My users have
been using it for quite some time.  It will be fairly trivial to add it
to Imprudence.

McCabe did bring up some issues with the UI.  We are using the same UI
that was used in Emerald, with two exceptions.  One was I put it's
prefs into it's own dialog, in the same way as IM auto-response options
(it's even close to that button).  The other was a departure from every
other OTR implementation, where they all follow the original confusing
menu.  I turned it into a smart button that keeps track of what state
OTR is in, and switches itself when needed.  Note that I stayed with
the original OTR text in order to not confuse existing OTR users.

McCabe suggested that "OTR" is not very descriptive for those that
don't know what it is.  On the other hand, it's "OTR" that people are
asking for, they might object if we give them OTR, but call it
something else.  Any other descriptive label might be a bit long to fit
into the UI.

Here are some screenshots of OTR in meta-impy.  These images do not
show the smart button drop down menus, or the hover tips, seems the
viewer can't capture those in screenshots.

http://onefang.net/downloads/OTR_Imprudence_001.png

The default, with OTR not being active.  This is an unencrypted IM as
would normally happen if OTR did not exist.  McCabe suggested that "Not
private" was misleading, as it's as private as IMs usually are.  "Not
encrypted" is probably better.

Also shown is the preferences window, with the little OTR prefs window
open.

http://onefang.net/downloads/OTR_Imprudence_002.png

After clicking on the OTR smart button, it changes to "Unverified".

OTR has a procedure for verifying the person you are talking to really
IS that person.  The smart buttons drop down menu allows you to start
that process.  Also in the picture is the dialog used for that
verification process.  The next three photos show variations of that
dialog.

http://onefang.net/downloads/OTR_Imprudence_003.png
http://onefang.net/downloads/OTR_Imprudence_004.png
http://onefang.net/downloads/OTR_Imprudence_005.png

http://onefang.net/downloads/OTR_Imprudence_006.png

This is what you see while you wait for the other person to answer
your question.

Oops, I missed taking a photo of what it looks like from the other side
when the question is asked, it looks similar to picture 2, just with
the question greyed out.

http://onefang.net/downloads/OTR_Imprudence_007.png

What the other person sees after they have answered the question
correctly.  Note that verification is one way, at this point the second
person is verified to the first, but not the other way around.

http://onefang.net/downloads/OTR_Imprudence_008.png

What the original person sees after the verification is complete.  Note
that the smart button automatically changed to "Private".  This is what
you see instead of "Unverified" when you are using OTR with someone you
verified eaorlier.  The second person is still seeing "Unverified" at
this point, since this verification only happened one way.

http://onefang.net/downloads/OTR_Imprudence_009.png

Showing the message you get when the other person logs off.

http://onefang.net/downloads/OTR_Imprudence_010.png

The message you get when you try to send to someone in "Finished"
mode.  Clicking on the smart button returns to "Not private".

This is a deliberate feature of OTR by the OTR authors, and it's the
one most annoying feature.  It interacts badly with the unreliable
nature of OpenSim and SL presence.  You don't always know for sure if
your friends are online or not, coz the servers don't always tell you.
If they are online, but your viewer does not know it, then OTR gets
really confused.  For why it's a deliberate feature of OTR, go ask them.

I see that some of this text should be changed, though the changes
might end up being rather long texts.  B-(

"Not private" -> "Not encrypted"  That's fine.

"Unverified" -> "Encrypted, but unverified"  Too long.

"Private" -> "Encrypted and verified"  Also too long.

"Finished", actually this is the one I changed already, since the
original was a menu item "End private conversation", which you can
still see in picture 10.  Guess I forgot to change that text to match.
lol

As you can see, with all those long words, it gets a bit too long.  I
could put the longer texts in the hover tips.

-- 
A big old stinking pile of genius that no one wants
coz there are too many silver coated monkeys in the world.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.imprudenceviewer.org/pipermail/impdev-imprudenceviewer.org/attachments/20120126/9a71f075/attachment.pgp>