Rewrite Telemachus datalink to use web sockets instead of AJAX requests

[tcannonfodder]

This is a major overhaul to Houston's backend (maybe 1.5/2.0?), but could have a number of performance and usability improvements:

• Page weight could be reduced, since browsers aren't caching the AJAX responses, needlessly filling up the page cache
• A version of Houston could be hosted on a centralized website, rather than relying on the Telemachus server to pass all that data along (currently CORS prevents this)
• Potentially better performance?

It's worth looking into and seeing what the effect is and how feasible it is

[gitanat]

Have you considered using kRPC instead of Telemachus?
The documentation is great, and the author is very responsive.
There's a development version with websocket support at krpc/krpc-core#15

[tcannonfodder]

Hey there!

kRPC looks super awesome, I'm just not sure it's the right fit for Houston. Houston's designed more for "read only" access on mission control's side, relying on the pilot to execute maneuvers (this makes communication a crucial part of the mod).

I've been maintaining my own fork of Telemachus to add features and support, and I saw your post about somehow linking kRPC and Telemachus. A long-term goal is to redesign Telemachus' API, so linking to external services might be part of that. :) For now though, I think Houston will continue to use Telemachus.