I got so annoyed with msn the other day so i started looking onto coding a IM application myself.
After looking around i chose to start codingin it in python because of how easy it is to create and manage sockets and the availabillity of libraries of different kinds under linux(which is my main os).
This is not thought to be something that is supposed to be used by lots of people, i just kind of want to make it as a fun hobby project.

So my question to you is what do i have to think about now to make it easier for me in the future.
Some questions i though alot about are:
- What should my class tree look like?
- What would be a good way to authenticate users
- A good way to create the GUI(pyGTK or pyQT maybe wxPython)
- How to get the right message to the right user in a fast and smart way


Ive got the basic sending and recieving of messages working now and it really wasnt that hard. I always though it would be alot harder.
Im trying to make it kind o like the IRC-way with chatrooms and private chats between users.

This is the first bigger project i lay my hands on in python so im thankfull for any advice or comment you guys can bring up.
Thanks

For the authentication of users, you'll probably want a database full of username/password combinations - so that users can authenticated and other users can look people up using the right username.

If you want to get the right message to the right user in a fast and smart way, have you considered UDP packets? I don't know which socket model you're using, but if you stored the IP address of a connected user, you could easily keep track of which users are in which chats, and where to send the packet.