--- /dev/null
+---
+postid: 0a2
+title: Botworks: Trilemabot and Feedbot V patches, the autumn 2019 session
+date: September 20, 2019
+author: Lucian Mogoșanu
+tags: tmsr, tech
+---
+
+Since we're here, let's do a recap of the botworks series so far:
+
+* Trilemabot: [self-voicing][trilemabot-i] and [command
+ handling][trilemabot-ii];
+* [Keccak/manifest regrind][botworks-regrind] of the botworks tree;
+* Feedbot: [checker][feedbot-i], [announcer][feedbot-ii], [irc
+ bot][feedbot-iii].
+
+This is a lot of code, by the way. If there's any brave soul who's
+willing to a. integrate cl-irc plus *all* its dependencies (same as
+I've done with [Hunchentoot][hunchentoot-genesis]), then b. surgically
+remove any and every thing that's not needed for c. IRC bots in
+general, as well as d. [#trilema][trilema-bot-spec] bots and
+e. Feedbot in particular, keeping *only* what's actually used -- then
+you're more welcome to give it a shot. Anyways, if you're interested,
+drop by #spyked on Freenode.
+
+As for today's subject, I've been brewing a couple of V patches in my
+lab over the last month or so. Here they are:
+
+* [trilemabot-voicer-tweaks.vpatch][trilemabot-voicer-tweaks.vpatch]
+ ([seal][trilemabot-voice-tweaks.vpatch.spyked.sig])
+* [feedbot-concurrency-fixes.vpatch][feedbot-concurrency-fixes.vpatch]
+ ([seal][feedbot-concurrency-fixes.vpatch.spyked.sig])
+
+This comes after about [nine months][feedbot-iii] of not touching the
+code at all; and I sure as hell hope I don't have to add anything new
+in the next eighteen.
+
+Trilemabot voicer tweaks: a. adds a new method to load the list of
+voice OTPs (previously emitted by deedbot and saved via the converse
+method) from a file[^1]; and b. makes the "filespec" argument for both
+methods optional, adding a default value there. The reasoning behind b
+is that I've been using this self-voicing method for months now, and
+having to type the filename each and every time is annoying. I'm not
+going to keep multiple files for this purpose, so the parameters
+remain to be used only in special cases, e.g. backup or something.
+
+Feedbot concurrency fixes: a. fixes those [annoying
+crashes][logz-1930054] that have been occuring until a month ago;
+b. improves general performance (delivery, response time etc.) by
+removing HTTP requests from critical sections; and c. removes some
+useless functions that in hindsight have proven to be at best useless,
+and at worst annoying.
+
+The fix for a is already outlined in [the logs][logz-1930069]: don't
+have message delivery take over the main loop, do it only in
+pre-defined bursts (see \*max-announce-burst\*[^2]). This should only
+be necessary for the rpl\_ison handler, but I want the bot to act
+consistenly, so both PM and in-channel delivery act the same.
+
+I implemented b by adding a new parameter to the update-feed!
+function, denoting the feed as grabbed by [feedparse][feedparse], and
+changing update-feed-db so that it calls try-parse-feed outside the
+critical section, then passing the result to update-feed!.
+
+As for c, I had initially wanted the bot to do some extra management
+when loading/saving state on the disk, e.g. not overwriting the
+existing feed list in memory unless necessary, but this is clearly
+overengineering and really, the basic stuff works just fine. So we can
+do with just the two basic feedbot-{save,reload}-state methods
+outlined in the [initial patch][feedbot-iii].
+
+That's about it for now. If you want to use this and need any support
+from yours truly, I'm in #spyked.
+
+[^1]: I honestly don't remember why I haven't included this in the
+ initial patch. Why the fuck be able to save voice OTPs and not
+ load them?
+
+ I'm a weird one, but they say that acknowledging one's problems is
+ the first step towards fixing them, so... that's that.
+
+[^2]: Currently set to a conservative value of 5, for no particular
+ reason. This can be computed though: if the announcement delay is
+ one second and pings are checked every 30 seconds, then a value of
+ 29 (or even 30) should *in principle* work.
+
+[trilemabot-i]: /posts/y04/072-trilemabot-i.html
+[trilemabot-ii]: /posts/y05/078-trilemabot-ii.html
+[botworks-regrind]: /posts/y05/080-botworks-regrind.html
+[feedbot-manual]: /posts/y05/081-feedbot-manual.html
+[feedbot-i]: /posts/y05/08a-feedbot-i.html
+[feedbot-ii]: /posts/y05/08b-feedbot-ii.html
+[feedbot-iii]: /posts/y05/08c-feedbot-iii.html
+[hunchentoot-genesis]: /posts/y06/09f-hunchentoot-genesis.html
+[trilema-bot-spec]: http://trilema.com/2016/trilema-bot-spec/
+[trilemabot-voicer-tweaks.vpatch]: http://lucian.mogosanu.ro/src/botworks/v/patches/trilemabot-voicer-tweaks.vpatch
+[trilemabot-voice-tweaks.vpatch.spyked.sig]: http://lucian.mogosanu.ro/src/botworks/v/seals/trilemabot-voicer-tweaks.vpatch.spyked.sig
+[feedbot-concurrency-fixes.vpatch]: http://lucian.mogosanu.ro/src/botworks/v/patches/feedbot-concurrency-fixes.vpatch
+[feedbot-concurrency-fixes.vpatch.spyked.sig]: http://lucian.mogosanu.ro/src/botworks/v/seals/feedbot-concurrency-fixes.vpatch.spyked.sig
+[logz-1930054]: http://logs.nosuchlabs.com/log/trilema/2019-08-22#1930054
+[logz-1930069]: http://logs.nosuchlabs.com/log/trilema/2019-08-22#1930069
+[feedparse]: /posts/y05/087-feedparse.html
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