A little guidance for protocol plugins

[Jeremy Smith]

Executive summary: I have an idea for a (hopefully pretty simple) 
protocol plugin.  Basically, it would log in over SSH to a server, get a 
pty, use a periodic `who` to get the buddy list (being the other users 
logged in to that machine), and use the `write` command to send 
messages.  In turn, it would listen on the pty for messages from other 
users (as well as broadcast messages from `wall`).

I basically want to check that nobody has done this already, and to ask: 
what's the best way to get started building and testing plugins?  I am 
using Windows; have cygwin and mingw, and the pidgin source.  Is there a 
skeleton protocol plugin I can start with?  And once I manage to build 
my plugin, do I just drop it into pidgin's plugins directory and 
restart?  I've never worked with gtk; am I going to have to write any 
GUIs for configuring my plugin? (Specifying server, username, which RSH 
to use, etc).

Thanks for any guidance!

Jeremy
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature
Size: 5588 bytes
Desc: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
URL: <http://pidgin.im/pipermail/devel/attachments/20090508/5d47bd0d/attachment-0002.bin>