[tor-project] [TSoP] stem.client - status report #1

[Dave Rolek]

Hi everyone!

This is my first status report for the stem.client TSoP project [1].


# Updates

A lot of these first two weeks has been improving development processes,
workflows, and coordination.

A new Trac keyword "dev" now exists for stem tickets related to
developers/development. [2][3]
I'll be adding more and addressing some of these soon.

I continued some work on the stem.control caching behavior, to wrap up
#25821 [4] and tie out a remnant event into a new ticket, #26129 [5].

I've been planning out some of the architecture/design of stem.client
[6], as well as reviewing existing code [7].

For the former, I'm especially considering how to make stem.client most
useful within the Tor and Python ecosystems.

I've looked at the "sans-io" style in hyper-h2 that meejah mentioned
[8][9][10][11], along with similar resources [12][13][14].

I've also been looking at a few of the modules in the Python stdlib and
projects in the ecosystem, to try to understand their potential
integration points.


# What's next

For both architecture and code review, I have a bit more work to do.
I'll confer further with Damian for these.
Architecture discussion will be started on a private pad and then opened
up to the larger community.

Afterwards, I'll be moving onto these cells:
* CREATE
* CREATED
* CREATE2
* CREATED2
* PADDING_NEGOTIATE

And then I'll be working on CERTS, AUTH_CHALLENGE, NETINFO cells and the
"v3 handshake".


# Other Tor things

I'd like to point out some other Tor things I'm doing, too, that aren't
under the scope of stem :).

I've had some mild involvement in the University of Michigan getting
their exit node [15] up and running again.
And Cryptoparty Ann Arbor will be having an event on Sat., June 9th, at
the public library. [16]


# Closing

As with before, I've been active and reachable over IRC, where my nick
is dmr.

I'm still attending the network-team meetings, and since I've been
asking some clarifications on the tor-spec [17], I'll probably be more
chatty in those soon, too!

Please don't hesitate to reach out to me via IRC or email.

Thanks,
Dave


[1]
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2018-April/013090.html
[2]
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?keywords=~dev&component=Core+Tor%2FStem
[3]
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/stem/bugs?action=diff&contextall=1&version=16&old_version=15
[4] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25821
[5] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/26129
[6] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/26226
[7] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/26227
[8]
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2018-February/012906.html
[9]
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2018-February/012908.html
[10]
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2018-April/013100.html
[11] https://python-hyper.org/h2/en/stable/
[12] https://sans-io.readthedocs.io/how-to-sans-io.html
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cC3_jGwl_U
[14] https://github.com/python-hyper/h11
[15]
https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/5AFAC3D00E97D6733112CC9CA2A788691FA87125
[16] https://aadl.org/node/372209
[17] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/26228