I’ve successfully implemented X11 public API transport for Skype UI.

It is fast, reliable and in principle you can use it even across network.

I’ve also implemented a small demo application called Skype API console. It lets you interactively enter API commands, receive replies and control Skype UI. After some polishing I’m planning to release this console under open source license as an example of how X11 transport can be used with Skype API.

The D-BUS interface will be back in shortly as well. For this release we decided to stick to 0.23-compatible implementation, to decrease possibility of breaking things majorly. However, there is one thing we would like to change and it is - use session bus by default instead of system bus. Indeed, having Skype on system bus by default makes it impossible to have multiple Skypes running for different users on the same machine. But this change gonna break any and all API-based clients that were assuming Skype is on system bus. I will add a switch to use system bus for cases where you’re assuming old behavior and the price of changing your framework is too high. This is just so that you know what is going to happen.

On the ALSA part we achieved some success with stable audio for most of our betatesters, so there probably will not be much improvement since now until release, but we now have a switch for going back to good old OSS for those who cannot make ALSA work at all. And, of course, we will be improving it in the future for sure.

Get ready, we’re igniting… 10.. 9.. 8..