They Chat

They Chat

TheyChat is a client-server chat application developed solely by me. The application allows multiple clients to connect to a server,exchange messages and files. The project is built using CMake and is designed to run on POSIX systems, utilizing pthreads for multithreading and ncurses for a simple client UI. Communication between the client and server is encrypted using OpenSSL.

Features

• Multithreaded Server: Handles multiple clients concurrently using pthreads.
• Client UI: Simple text-based interface built with ncurses.
• Encrypted Communication: Ensures secure message transfer using SSL.
• File transferring: Clients can upload and download files.
• Commands: Clients can send messages and execute commands.
• Cross-platform: Designed to run on POSIX-compliant systems.
• CMake Build System: Easy to build and manage the project.
• MIT Licensed: Open-source and freely available for modification and distribution.

What I Learned

• Functional programming and its benefits in certain scenarios
• Low-level programming and the importance of memory management
• Building multithreaded applications using the thread pool pattern
• Understanding and implementing client-server architecture
• Low-level network programming, including handling custom message types
• Implementing remote procedure calls (RPC)
• Designing and managing asynchronous tasks
• Securing communication with TLS encryption
• Rendering polished UI in the console using the ncurses library
• Implementing custom file transfer protocols
• Understanding the importance of robust error handling

Source code

Source code is available on GitHub!