IdealIRC

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What's IdealIRC?  —  IdealIRC's interface  —  Options dialog  —  DCC  —  Scripting

What's IRC?

Like how web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome uses "HTTP" to fetch websites, IdealIRC uses "IRC" to allow the user to communicate with other people.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was introduced in 1988 by Jarkko Oikarinen. IRC is a text-based instant messaging system. It allows people to join group based chats as well as 1:1 private dialogs.

Common terminology

• Server – An IRC server can be viewed as a collection of groups of people. Different servers may not have the same users connected to it, though some people are part of other servers.
• Network – A group of related servers connected to each other (Eg. DALnet, Undernet, etc.)
• Channel – A group chat, basically.
• IRC operator – A person which holds administrative rights over an IRC server.
• Modes – Modes comes as two variants; "user modes" and "channel modes". These may set various properties for the user or the channel, such as; is the user an IRC operator, or if the channel needs a secret password to join.
• Bot – Short for "robot", this is a computer program that connects to a server and may act upon, for example, what other people say in a channel.
• Services – A set of bots which is provided by the server or network, which can help you with managing a channel, reserving your nickname, etc.

What is IdealIRC?

This is an application that allows users to connect with IRC servers and communicate with other people.
The goal is to be sparse on features but allow extending the client using scripting.

I've been using IRC since my much-older-than-me cousin showed me IRC in 1999 or so. In 2007-2008 I started to learn C++ programming since I discovered the strength of Linux based systems, but I couldn't find any IRC clients that felt "at home" like mIRC did. So from there, I had a project that I could learn software programming: I needed an IRC client in Linux which shared some similarities with mIRC, but with much less of the added "bloat".

Currently I've re-written the client maybe 3 or 4 times but as it is today, this is "the" product that I am the most happy with.

I am also open for contributors that could help me make this software a lot better than it is today.