So I want to play with IRC

[mmmdreg]

Say I got bitchX because I felt like it and I'm being very narrow-minded so I'm not going to get anything else.. =P..
And say I'm a n00b who knows stuff abt the CLI but not IRC at all really..
what're the basic things I should know and what should I do and where should I look around and what channels are good etc etc etc? Essentially a basic IRC guide

 

[King Cobra]

www.irchelp.org/irchelp/text/ircprimer.txt

It's 37 pages, so print it out, staple it twice to be sure it's stapled, and read it several times. Get used to grabbing the physical printout of the guide for a while - particularly while you're trying out the commands - until you are absolutely sure how, when, and where to use some commands.

Softcore rant: And how the hell does one install BitchX? It looks more like a command line app than something that requires double-clicking to open. The installation documentation online was a waste of space and a waste of time, because it didn't explain anything clearly enough to put into "How to use the program" English.

X-Chat Aqua uses some of the barebones commands, but also allows a bit of mouse commands and control-clicking. It hasn't implemented all of the IRC commands, just the most common ones.

 

[mmmdreg]

lol that's because it *is* a command line app kC so yeah.. run from terminal or whatever you want..

oh and thanx for the link.. tho the amount of pages put me off reading it until tomoz or something =)

meanwhile, I was compiling the source and "make" gets two errors: "make[1]: [misc.o] Error 1" and "make: *** [BitchX] Error 2"..

 

[King Cobra]

I'm not as savvy as others in the UNIX department, mostly because of a lack of interest...go figure. Last time I tried to deal with BitchX was at least 4 months ago, and I guessed (correctly) that it involved the Terminal for command-line prompts, something I didn't want to have to do just to get a chat client working.

You don't need to go through all 37 pages in detail. The first 3 or so deals with how to behave in the IRC chat room. Browse through them once. Then you get into the meat. The second half of the packet is for operating a channel, as supposed to just being in one. Get to know the /MODE command well if you plan to be an op someday. The last third of the packet not only involves how to be an op at a channel, but also how to program the ircII client to do certain things for when someone enters a room. Once you get seriously IRC- and UNIX-savvy, you'll be able to program "bot-ops" into chat rooms.

 

[cb911]

he he. "Short IRC primer". thanks for that link King Cobra, i'll have a read of that.

i've had a play around with BitchX... but i can't remember if it was in OS X or linux.

wouldn't it be easier to just get it off DarwinPorts or Fink? dont' they have a OS X port as well?