[sugar] Obtaining Buddy objects as contacts are encountered

[Ivan Krstić]

Simon McVittie wrote:
> 15:33 < smcv> dcbw: hmm, do we support buddies changing colour/nick/avatar at 
>               will?
> 15:33 < dcbw> smcv: yes, we do
> 15:33 < smcv> dcbw: if so, any spoofing protection is essentially worthless 
>               since they can freely change how they appear in the UI
[snip]

You're making this much more complex than it needs to be.

When first introduced to a buddy, you store his key and name (as given)
as immutable, and color/nick/avatar as mutable. We must never depend on
just color/nick/avatar in the UI to identify people; their name, as we
have it stored, must always be displayed alongside their mutable
identifier. If you're IMing with someone who has Bob's picture but the
displayed name is Alice, you'll know something's wrong. This is the
design we've discussed from the beginning.

-- 
Ivan Krstić <krstic at solarsail.hcs.harvard.edu> | GPG: 0x147C722D