Francesco's blog

Writing a Telegram echo bot in C

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Photo by @ilgmyzin from Unsplash.com

My main programming language is C (even though I’d like to write more Go these days). I’ve been working with it for years, and since I use Telegram daily, I figured: why not write a bot in C? I know there’s already telebot, but I wanted to learn something new.

In this post, we’re going to build a simple echo bot, it replies with whatever you send it. We’ll use libcurl for HTTP and yyjson for parsing the responses.

How to setup soju (the IRC bouncer)

Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Photo by Ansel Lee from Pexels

Recently I got back to IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Actually, I’ve never really been on that side of the internet, so I didn’t get back, I’m just exploring a new world.

The first thing I noticed is that it’s full of experienced people with incredible knowledge. They know everything and, most importantly, they’re so friendly. Even if you don’t know something, they are there to help you (if you want to be helped). However, since there’s no centralized server, when I close my laptop or quit the application I don’t receive any messages from others.

How to integrate Vcpkg with Meson Build system (Modern way)

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Photo by Steve A Johnson from Pexels

Well, I already published a way to make Meson work with vcpkg and today I have a newer way to do the same.

I was writing a simple SFTP client and I needed the libssh library. Here is the modern way to set it up:

Prerequisites

Install vcpkg as usual
Install Visual Studio, Desktop C++ to make it works

Step-by-Step Guide

Install dependencies:
1

$ vcpkg install libssh pkgconf
Note: Remember to install pkgconf; Meson needs it to find where the libraries are.

About Me

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to my personal blog. This is where I dump my random thoughts, code snippets that (actually) compile, and logs of my ongoing project journeys.

Who am I?

I am a Computer Engineering student at Politecnico di Torino and a Linux user, even if I happen to be writing this from a Windows machine right now. I primarily develop in C, Go and I’m passionate about information security.

I’ve always liked low-level systems, which is why I joined the software task force at semitov. There, we design open-source RISC-V cores, PCBs, and custom software toolchains.

How to integrate Vcpkg with Meson Build system

Wed, 14 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Photo by @theshubhamdhage from Unsplash.com

The worst part about developing on Windows is developing on Windows. Okay, jokes aside, life is generally easier on Linux.

On Linux, package management is typically handled by the OS. You just download the library with the -devel suffix, and in meson.build, you add the dependency() function to link it to your program.

On Windows, however, you often find yourself hunting for sketchy installers, manually wiring up INCLUDE and LIB paths, or dealing with the dreaded “DLL hell”.