monero-site/_posts/2016-03-19-overview-and-logs-for-the-dev-meeting-held-on-2016-03-19

---
layout: post
title: Overview and Logs for the Dev Meeting Held on 2016-03-19
summary: Few PRs were discussed, GUI commit(s), app/add-on infrastructure, version structure
tags: [dev diaries, core, crypto]
author: dEBRUYNE / fluffypony
---
 
*March 19th, 2016*
 
# Logs
 **\<dEBRUYNE>** dev meeting in 5 min, FYI
**\<hyc>** dingdong
**\<gingeropolous>** hello
**\<dEBRUYNE>** fluffypony, smooth, othe, ArticMine, luigiw, NoodleDoodle, tewinget, moneromooo
**\<floofypony>** there we go
**\<dEBRUYNE>** did I forget anyone?
**\<tewinget>** oh, hello
**\<luigi>** is warptangent around?
**\<ArticMine>** Hello
**\<hyc>** he's been fighting a flu last we heard
**\<moneromooo>** hi
**\<NoodleDoodle>** Hello. I'm here but I'm fighting the apocalypse.
**\<NoodleDoodle>** of flus.
**\<luigi>** keep doing it
**\<luigi>** wait you're alive that's good to hear
**\<dEBRUYNE>** fluffypony seems ded
**\<@fluffypony>** sorry
**\<@fluffypony>** was eating
**\<@fluffypony>** welcome everyone
**\<@fluffypony>** so as you know we pushed out 0.9.2
**\<@fluffypony>** however, there are some nagging issues from the ReadTXN work
**\<@fluffypony>** hyc has nailed a major one as of a few hours ago
**\<@fluffypony>** so we'll probably do a point release on Monday or so
**\<@fluffypony>** also that means that the way we use LMDB has changed a bit
**\<@fluffypony>** hyc can you tell us briefly how we should wrapping access to LMDB, both read and write operations?
**\<hyc>** Are you talking about the CRITICAL_REGION stuff?
**\<@fluffypony>** yes, and the cursors vs. txns stuff
**\<hyc>** ok, the critical_region stuff actually is not a change at all.
**\<hyc>** basically, when you're setting up to do a write, you need exclusive access to the DB
**\<hyc>** this appears to have been a long-standing bug, unrelated to the readtxn changes
**\<hyc>** so as for reads - there is now a long-lived read txn per thread
**\<hyc>** and a set of read cursors to go with each
**\<hyc>** the TXN_PREFIX_RDONLY macro sets that up in a particular function, grabbing the thread-local-storage for it
**\<hyc>** and RCURSOR(dbname) sets up a read cursor for a particular DB
**\<hyc>** these are analogous to the CURSOR(dbname) macro for getting a write cursor to a DB
**\<hyc>** the point of all this is to avoid a bunch of malloc/free/seek when accessing a DB
**\<hyc>** the old code was allocating a readtxn and cursors inside each function
**\<hyc>** likewise for writes
**\<hyc>** by reusing the same cursors acros a set oof functions we get a pretty good performance gain
**\<hyc>** ok?
**\<@fluffypony>** neat
**\<@fluffypony>** also on the topic of stuff-hyc-did-lately
**\<@fluffypony>** if anyone missed it, we now have a win environment guide up on forum.getmonero.org
**\<dEBRUYNE>** ^ https//forum.getmonero.org/5/support//building-monero-v0-9-2-on-winMonero
**\<@fluffypony>** so that should get us all on the same page with testing etc.
**\<hyc>** and one success story replied to it already ;)
**\<@fluffypony>** we've also dropped support for BDB as the default database, and switched to LMDB as the default
**\<@fluffypony>** including on -bit and ARM
**\<@fluffypony>** BDB will remain supported for the moment, primarily as a mechanism for contributors to understand how to build out DB support
**\<@fluffypony>** krongle)
**\<@fluffypony>** shew we have the entire xmr.to team here today, that's awesome
**\<binaryFate>** fluffypony good memory P
**\<@fluffypony>** we shared a podcast together, binaryFate -P
**\<krongle>** yes - impressive nick-name recollection
**\<@fluffypony>** hah hah
**\<@fluffypony>** while we have you guys here, are you guys doing anything cool you want to talk about?
**\<binaryFate>** we're doing many cool things, but nothing we can talk about at this stage
**\<@fluffypony>** hah hah
**\<@fluffypony>** it does lead to an interesting point of conversation
**\<binaryFate>** seriously considering btc -> xmr direction
**\<@fluffypony>** plugins
**\<iam6yearsold>** If NobleSir or xmr.to team could talk more about xmr.to integration at MiniNero that would be great.... also are 2 way conversions coming to xmr.to soon?
**\<@fluffypony>** iam6yearsold Shen's offline at the moment, I'll ask him to update the Reddit thread with some info )
**\<@fluffypony>** re plugins, we've spoken briefly about options for the GUI
**\<dEBRUYNE>** iam6yearsold There is a bit of info here -> https//imgur.com/a/HZL7k
**\<binaryFate>** iam6yearsold for MiniNero integration you'd have to see with NobleSir. The API doc is at http//xmrto-api.readthedocs.org/en/latest/
**\<@fluffypony>** but I guess we could have "plugins", of a sort, that add functionality
**\<@fluffypony>** like xmr.to or shapeshift integration right in wallet2 / wallet2_api
**\<dEBRUYNE>** I think we should be fairly strict on which plugins to allow
**\<binaryFate>** fluffypony we wanted to discuss that plugin integration soon in fact )
**\<arnuschky>** we're quite interested to all secondary  questions related to plugins
**\<@fluffypony>** I guess the major question becomes
**\<arnuschky>** so plugin repository/db, packaging, distribution etc
**\<@fluffypony>** do we allow "permissionless" plugin development, or do we just have a central repo that we git submodule in?
**\<ArticMine>** The main question I see with plugins is trust
**\<@fluffypony>** ArticMine exactly
**\<arnuschky>** yes. It puts quite a bit responsibility on the dev team
**\<gingeropolous>** well no ones going to trust anything that doesn;t come from core
**\tewinget>** \<fluffypony> we shared a podcast together, binaryFate -P  <-- wasn't I there for that?
**\<@fluffypony>** considering the recent Google Chrome Bitcoin stealing malware I think that premissionless plugins are dangerous
**\<gingeropolous>** as we've seen with 3rd party GUIs
**\<luigi>** you obviously can't stop permissionless dev, you can discourage users from trusting it I guess
**\<hyc>** we can start signing binaries, ohjoy
**\<dEBRUYNE>** I would prefer the latter
**\<@fluffypony>** luigi I mean permissionless within core
**\<luigi>** oh
**\<luigi>** I think no
**\<arnuschky>** it's related to how plugins are written. If it's binary blobs, it's a) hard to build, distribute etc, and b) hard to examine
**\<binaryFate>** fluffypony I'd see both possible all together. Unpermissioned scale and central repo for a selected subset would ease experience and trust for user
**\<arnuschky>** so if plugins are interpreted (eg python), things become a whole lot easier
**\<iam6yearsold>** for the record I hated the twittter plugin idea I saw a while back
**\<ArticMine>** My take permissionless has to be allowed. The end user has to be made aware who is signing and if to trust the plugin
**\<@fluffypony>** well the Electrum model works well
**\<moneromooo>** I agree with ArticMine
**\<arnuschky>** (inspection in case of central repo, but also self-distribution by plugin devs)
**\<@fluffypony>** ThomasV will merge basically any plugin, as long as it's not malicious
**\<@fluffypony>** and plugins are part of the core code, effectively just in a subfolder
**\<@fluffypony>** I think it's a testament to Electrum that they haven't had a malicious plugin ever
**\<arnuschky>** how do they deal with the upgrade/maintenance workload? Or do they just disable broken plugins?
**\<dEBRUYNE>** Is there a way to make a subfolder in the subfolder? i.e. (1) signed and approved by core-team, (2) optional
**\<@fluffypony>** arnuschky yeah they just disable broken plugins, and eventually they get deprecated out
**\<ArticMine>** We should allow self distribution with appropriate warning
**\<@fluffypony>** ArticMine anyone can compile their own build, which would be the same thing
**\<arnuschky>** are you planning for compiled plugins or interpreted ones? that's quite a differens IMHO
**\<@fluffypony>** arnuschky so
**\<arnuschky>** self-distribution is a mess for compiled ones...
**\<@fluffypony>** I was thinking we have a repo, say it's called monero-plugins
**\<arnuschky>** audit as well
**\<@fluffypony>** and then anyone can PR to that repo
**\<@fluffypony>** and that repo is pulled into the main Monero source as a git submodule
**\<@fluffypony>** there are two advantages to this
**\<@fluffypony>** 1. as it gets bigger and harder to deal with, we can step back and other known members of the community can manage that repo
**\<@fluffypony>** 2. if we come up with a standard set of functionality hooks, then other projects can pull that same repo in
**\<@fluffypony>** eg. jwinterm's lightwallet
**\<@fluffypony>** also it means that the compiled Monero binaries have those plugins baked in, and you can't add extra plugins post-compile
**\<@fluffypony>** so no need to deal with interpreted code and securing that on disk and in memory
**\<hyc>** baked in means no dynamic loading?
**\<tewinget>** \<fluffypony> so no need to deal with interpreted code and securing that on disk  <-- if securing an interpreted plugin on disk became an issue, securing the binary would be an issue anyway, so I don't know of that bit matters
**\<binaryFate>** Sounds all good to us. If distribution is done through official channels it's great.
**\<@fluffypony>** hyc yes
**\<@fluffypony>** no dynamic loading
**\<hyc>** cool
**\<@fluffypony>** tewinget I mean we can't secure it in the path from random-site-on-the-web down to random-download-folder and eventually into secure-disk-location
**\<arnuschky>** fluffypony that would be really great.
**\<@fluffypony>** ok - I think next steps would be to consider some of the hooks we need to provide to add functionality
**\<@fluffypony>** we can use the Monero wikia as a collaboration area for that
**\<ArticMine>** It is a good balance for plugins
**\<@fluffypony>** and then we'll just update the Monero Slack
**\<arnuschky>** well securing the plugins can always happen by signature - no matter if interpreted or binary
**\<@fluffypony>** I'm kidding, we don't have a Slack
**\<@fluffypony>** we're not that cool
**\<aerbax>** Would these plugins allow for interpreted languages like Lua or Python?
**\<arnuschky>** :)
**\<@fluffypony>** aerbax I don't see why not, individual CMake files in each plugin folder that allow it to produce a library fix everything
**\<binaryFate>** We could financially support development of plugin architecture if xmr.to is the first instanciation of those plugins.
**\<@fluffypony>** if it spits out a .so / .a / .dll with the right hooks then it's fine
**\<tewinget> fluffypony> tewinget I mean we can't secure it in the path from random-site-on-the-web down to random-download-folder and eventually into secure-disk-location  <-- and yet, we provide binary downloads...so "random site on the web" could be managed the same as said binary downloads
**\<tewinget>** just like any random site on the web can offer binaries for download and we can't secure that either
**\<tewinget>** caveat emptor has to come into play at some point, I think
**\<@fluffypony>** the binaries present a single attack surface, and there's GPG-signed hashes
**\<@fluffypony>** if we have to do GPG-signed hashes for a bunch of .py files I think I'll go mad -P
**\<tewinget>** I'm not saying I think it should be one way or another, I'm merely pointing out flaws in your argument P
**\<@fluffypony>** fair enough
**\<@fluffypony>** binaryFate I think the stumbling block will be that somebody needs to champion this and run with it, and I won't be able to lead it due to travelling in a week
**\<ArticMine>** As long as people can compile their own version with non permissioned plugins this can work
**\<luigi>** they can always do that
**\<@fluffypony>** yep
**\<@fluffypony>** and in fact that would be the testing model
**\<luigi>** we're not apple )
**\<@fluffypony>** fork the repo, and build a binary to test your new plugin
**\<iam6yearsold>** asking noobs to compile will limit adoption
**\<ArticMine>** luigi Exactly
**\<@fluffypony>** iam6yearsold why would noobs be writing their own plugins?
**\<gingeropolous>** for security
**\<dEBRUYNE>** lol gingeropolous
**\<@fluffypony>** lol
**\<arnuschky>** fluffypony championing the first plugin or the whole infrastructure?
**\<tewinget>** What about a curated repo of plugins (as suggested) but with those plugins written in python/lua?  Someone modifying the python/lua on a target's disk is the same as someone modifying the binary anyway, and python/lua plugins would be far easier to develop and audit I think
**\<@fluffypony>** arnuschky championing the design, I guess
**\<arnuschky>** tewinget I would prefer that.
**\<iam6yearsold>** how about 1 version with binaries and gpg sig and no plugins? caveat emptor for the rest
**\<arnuschky>** mostly due to auditing, and there's no build/distribution mess attached
**\<@fluffypony>** I would prefer we remain language agnostic
**\<@fluffypony>** iam6yearsold that's what we already have
**\<tewinget>** fluffypony language-agnostic is fine, but...well, how do you imagine that will work out?
**\<iam6yearsold>** thanks pony. I like the current situation then
**\<@fluffypony>** tewinget read up
**\<arnuschky>** ah even language agnostic. I thought up to now it's supposed to be a C++ only API
**\<tewinget>** as in, how do we become language-agnostic so that we can remain so?
**\<@fluffypony>** []  /<aerbax>        Would these plugins allow for interpreted languages like Lua or Python?
**\<@fluffypony>** []  /<@fluffypony>   aerbax I don't see why not, individual CMake files in each plugin folder that allow it to produce a library fix everything
**\<@fluffypony>** ^^
**\• smooth** is here
**\<@fluffypony>** also what if a plugin wants to call a function in the core crypto library, for instance?
**\<arnuschky>** design-wise, that's sounds like a nightmare, no?
**\<moneromooo>** Oh, so linked directly ? I kinda assumed it was gointg to be RPC based.
**\<@fluffypony>** ok well I think we're getting into an implementation discussion that's outside of the scope of this meeting
**\<arnuschky>** I mean, if you don't have a small and defined API, every bigger change in the wallet will break plugins
**\<arnuschky>** true )
**\<@fluffypony>** after the dev meeting we can continue this conversation if you guys want
**\<@fluffypony>** but let's first circle back around
**\<luigi>** this deserves some kind of design thread like ringct imo
**\<moneromooo>** Oh, link ?
**\<@fluffypony>** moneromooo: "this deserves"
**\<@fluffypony>** so nothing yet
**\<moneromooo>** "like ringct"
**\<@fluffypony>** oh
**\<@fluffypony>** I see what you were asking
**\<luigi>** oh
**\<moneromooo>** Oh
**\<@fluffypony>** OH
**\<luigi>** "like ringct is supposed to get"
**\<moneromooo>** Fair enough.
**\<@fluffypony>** so basically this is all luigi's fault
**\<luigi>** warp was gonna go it!@
**\<gingeropolous>** its true. i mis-called out luigi on that one
**\<@fluffypony>** warptangent is off sick at the moment
**\<luigi>** yes
**\<luigi>** so I blame that
**\<@fluffypony>** I blame Canada
**\<@fluffypony>** ok back on track
**\<@fluffypony>** since the last meeting the bulk of the PRs have been bug fixes
**\<@fluffypony>** and changes to the way we access the DB as discussed at the beginning
**\<@fluffypony>** we also had a huge discussion about how to handle mixins below the minimum in the RPC call
**\<@fluffypony>** which was then implemented in #715
**\<@fluffypony>** I'm also going to try to personally spend some time on the text that users see, things like the level 0 logging output and the CLI flag help
**\<luigi>** oh I was gonna do that
**\<luigi>** but then I didn't
**\<@fluffypony>** luigi we can do it together
**\<luigi>** awwww
**\<@fluffypony>** I can show you the world, shining shimmering splendid
**\<gingeropolous>** take you wonder by wonder
**\<@fluffypony>** lol
**\<@fluffypony>** also #728 was a little contentious
**\<@fluffypony>** so we created a company called Mixinstream that has hired all the contributors
**\<palexander>** heh heh
**\<@fluffypony>** and gingeropolous has launched Monero Classic
**\<gingeropolous>** ( sorry )
**\<@fluffypony>** -P
**\<@fluffypony>** ok so #728 is Ilya's work as part of the GUI effort
**\<dEBRUYNE>** Can I launch unlimited?
**\<@fluffypony>** he was struggling with wallet2, and decided to break it out into something more logical and usable
**\<@fluffypony>** (to him at any rate)
**\<ArticMine>** What makes it contentious?
**\<@fluffypony>** ArticMine I'll get to that now
**\<@fluffypony>** he's unintuitively called it wallet2_api, which is a little confusing
**\<@fluffypony>** but basically a lot of it is a wallet2_api call which then does little additional logic, and mainly just passes stuff back to wallet2
**\<@fluffypony>** and there's a lot of DRY-violating code because of it
**\<@fluffypony>** obviously there was some push back, not to prevent merging it
**\<@fluffypony>** but more to understand the thought process
**\<moneromooo>** Define DRY ?
**\<iam6yearsold>** DRY violating scares the shit out of me
**\<gingeropolous>** https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%t_repeat_yourself
**\ <gingeropolous>** maybe
**\<@fluffypony>** yes
**\<@fluffypony>** iam6yearsold DRY violations are just where you have a piece of code in two places
**\<@fluffypony>** so any changes have to happen in both
**\<@fluffypony>** we can treat the DRY-violating code as a temporary issue, though
**\<iam6yearsold>** two places = more opportunity for error
**\<@fluffypony>** as we're going to wait until Ilya is done with it
**\<ArticMine>** Which makes maintenance much harder
**\<@fluffypony>** and then we'll either drop wallet2 and replace it with the new wallet API
**\<@fluffypony>** (ie. replace the simplewallet calls as well)
**\<@fluffypony>** or if it's just a pointless layer we'll have to go the opposite route
**\<@fluffypony>** and change his Qt callers to use wallet2
**\<@fluffypony>** as it stands it's kinda undecided and we'll have to see how Ilya goes
**\<ArticMine>** Is Ilya aware of the concern?
**\<@fluffypony>** ArticMine yes, we had some discussion on the PR, and othe has also spoken to him afaik
**\<@fluffypony>** he was responsive on the PR comments, but this isn't Bitcoin
**\<@fluffypony>** we don't ACK NACK utACK for years before merging somethingm
**\<@fluffypony>** aintnobodygottimeforthat.gif
**\<luigi>** utNACK
**\<@fluffypony>** luigi #networknerd
**\<moneromooo>** utACK was not a typo ?
**\<luigi>** no
**\<luigi>** means untested
**\<luigi>** conceptACK or similar
**\<@fluffypony>** yeah
**\<@fluffypony>** moneromooo https//lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/-December/71.html
**\<@fluffypony>** if you're interested
**\<hyc>** crap
**\<@fluffypony>** LOL
**\<@fluffypony>** PasteGate 2.0
**\<gingeropolous>** internets
**\<othe>** ur pasting skills suck
**\<dEBRUYNE>** Hahah
**\<@fluffypony>** othe pasting is a scam
**\<hyc>** that's how I write all my patches
**\<@fluffypony>** I just copy-and-paste code from StackExchange
**\<gingeropolous>** thats my job
**\<@fluffypony>** heh
**\<@fluffypony>** ok so anyone who can reproduce the 0.9.2 segfault please try latest master
**\<@fluffypony>** and if you're still segfaulting let us know
**\<@fluffypony>** else we're going to do a point release on Monday
**\<@fluffypony>** 0.9.3, I guess?
**\<luigi>** hrm
**\<@fluffypony>** or 0.9.2.1
**\<luigi>** we're gonna run out of numbers at this rate
**\<@fluffypony>** yeah we are
**\<luigi>** oh wait
**\<hyc>** 0921
**\<luigi>** we have 0.10
**\<luigi>** nevermind
**\<iam6yearsold>** will there be multiple devs in IRC at time of hard fork this week just in case? I see a few pools still on old cold and probably a few users too
**\<@fluffypony>** yes we just do a Bitcoin
**\<moneromooo>** No chance, there's an infinity of those.
**\<@fluffypony>** 0.11
**\<@fluffypony>** iam6yearsold yes, and we've reached out to as many of them as we can
**\<luigi>** is 0.10 supposed to be for next hard fork?
**\<@fluffypony> luigi fork that
**\<@fluffypony>** when warptangent is back we'll see how it goes on ringCT
**\<@fluffypony>** and make a more concrete decision as to the timing of the next fork
**\<dEBRUYNE>** iam6yearsold The hardfork will approximately take place at 13:00 UTC, so both US and Europe will probably be awake
**\<dEBRUYNE>** and Asia of course
**\<luigi>** everyone will be awake
**\<@fluffypony>** even me
**\<dEBRUYNE>** hawaii will probably be asleep
**\<dEBRUYNE>** -P
**\<@fluffypony>** heh
**\<dEBRUYNE>** fwiw!
**\<luigi>** wat
**\<Wolf`>** lol
**\<smooth>** we should also consider what else we should go in the next major version besides ringct (doesn't need to be discussed now)
**\<dEBRUYNE>** uh I meant  UTC btw
**\<dEBRUYNE>** you muricans with AM/PM
**\<Wolf`>** who got drunk and posted about a party in #monero-dev
**\<luigi>** oh
**\<luigi>** then america won't be up
**\<moneromooo>** The db reorg seems like a good candidate.
**\<luigi>** oh well
**\<@fluffypony>** smooth agreed
**\<dEBRUYNE>** east coast will right?
**\<luigi>** sure ish
**\<dEBRUYNE>** You better set your alarm luigi
**\<dEBRUYNE>** :-P
**\<@fluffypony>** Surae is also going to be picking up MRL-6 in the summer
**\<@fluffypony>** he has some ideas about how to complete that
**\<dEBRUYNE>** MRL-6 is multisig?
**\<iam6yearsold>** I will party hard if fork happens with no drama
**\<@fluffypony>** dEBRUYNE: no
**\<@fluffypony>** https//github.com/monero-project/research-lab/tree/master/publications/MRL-%-%Difficulty%Adjustment%Algorithms%in%Cryptocurrency%Protocols
**\<dEBRUYNE>** oh cool, thanks
**\<moneromooo>** How do get cmake to tell you the commands it's running ?
**\<luigi>** we have diff, we have db stuff, we have fee stuff
**\<@fluffypony**> moneromooo: I normally make VERBOSE=1
**\<moneromooo>** Thanks, I was trying V=1
**\<luigi>** I like my V=2
**\<@fluffypony>** ok - any last things to add
**\<fluffypony>** or can we call it?
**\<luigi>** call it