How to write a Bittorrent client?

[aberadam]

I'm pretty much a computer newbie, I use my computer a fair amount generally but have never looked into programming.

I was thinking that writing a Bittorrent client might be an interesting and useful project but I have no idea if that's a realistic goal for a first timer. How long does it take to write something like Deluge in man hours? How much information do you have to know before you could start? How many books to read?

Thanks for any help!

[mvoncken]

You don't start your first project writing a something as big as a bittorrent client.

Deluge builds on libtorrent, so you could say that the deluge developers didn't even write a bittorrent client.
The amount of man-hours for a minimally working bittorrent client won't be that big (for an experienced and good coder).
But the amount of hours needed for a stable,mature and fully featured client are immense.

Python is a nice language to learn programming.
Adjust your goals , start writing little scripts, ,write 3 to 10 little applications and try writing a deluge-plugin after that.


Edit :
Besides the time spent on it you have to be born with a certain mathematical/abstraction instinct , and a manical obsession to understand and improve things.