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Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 22:13:13 -0700
Message-ID: <CABr1YTc0TOvfyFNY4CTaOiTa3WWb-5JHjQOTarB=8zZ+DqiUFg@mail.gmail.com>
From: Eric Lombrozo <elombrozo@gmail.com>
To: bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net
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Subject: [Bitcoin-development] Adding callback hooks to the satoshi client
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Hey, guys.

I've been writing a number of apps that require realtime event
notifications, where the JSON-RPC API clearly doesn't suffice.

There are two approaches I've been taking to this end:

1) Writing my own library for dealing with raw bitcoin structures and
connecting to bitcoin nodes via the bitcoin protocol.
2) Making custom builds of the satoshi client putting callback hooks
in key points.

Neither of these two approaches is ideal. (1) involves a lot of code
duplication, (2) involves patching the satoshi client source
each time I grab a later version, with the everpresent risk of
something breaking and the need to continue maintaining these patches.
Moreover, unfortunately many of these key points happen to be in files
like main.cpp which see frequent changes.

I would like to propose adding these callback hooks to the main
branch. I am willing to help locate these key points, reorganize the
code
to place these methods in separate source files, define a callback
mechanism, and contribute source code.

-Eric Lombrozo