It's Good to Talk... Frank Charlton delves into the time-devouring phenomenon that is Internet Relay Chat... With the current craze for 'Internet Telephone' applications on the PC and Mac, net users worldwide are whipping themselves into a frenzy at the prospect of real-time chat with other people across the globe. Actually rigging up microphones and sound hardware may be a new idea, but real-time chat with users on the other side of the world isn't. IRC - Internet Relay Chat - has existed almost since the birth of the net itself. It might not be as hip as squirting digitised voices across the Internet, but it's considerably more fun and a lot more friendly to the already overloaded net. IRC uses two pieces of software - the server, and the client. The server is a machine which acts as a central meeting place for all IRC users. Servers across the world are connected together, and they relay the chat between machines, hence the name. The software you need to run is the client. Think of it as a sort of terminal program if you like, since it's connecting you to another machine for a specific task. CLIENTS At the moment, there are two main IRC clients for use under GEM, and both require STiK. Lonny Pursell's excellent AtarIRC has evolved from a primitive text-based TOS program to a full-blown GEM client. It runs under normal TOS, MagiC, Geneva and even MiNT if you pick up the GLUESTIK program. AtarIRC will happily run as either a Desk Accessory or a standard application, although the current version doesn't offer resizeable windows or support iconification. Still, it's very easy to use and has a wealth of options to play with when you feel a little more adventurous, such as user-definable text colours and even support for sampled sound. Next is the fresh-faced FracIRC from Tim Putnam - it's also fully GEMmed, and very capable. FracIRC is slightly faster than AtarIRC thanks to its C roots - AtarIRC is compiled GFA BASIC. The author has come a long way in a short time, and it's staggering to think that FracIRC is his first C program. Version 2 could well be released by the time you read this, and Tim is promising bigger and better things to come. Whichever client you decide to use, it's good to know that both are under active development, and both programmers turn up on the atari channel almost every day. If you're using the combination of MiNT and MiNTNet, you have even more options available. Armed with GLUESTIK you can use both AtarIRC and FracIRC under either a singletasking or multitasking AES. For real IRC power and expandability there's an even better choice, though - ircII, the de-facto UNIX client is available in a MiNT version. It's not a wise choice for novices, though - ircII is a character-driven TOS program, and can be very cryptic to use if you're not used to the UNIX way of thinking. For advanced IRcers it really is the business though - very powerful, and expandible with the hundreds of add-on scripts available worldwide. With enough memory, the MiNTNet environment is a very rich and powerful one, too - so much so that we'll be covering it in a future issue... ON CHANNEL When you connect to an IRC server, you're not lumped into a giant virtual room with millions of other users - that would be disastrous, considering how many people are online at any given time. IRC works a bit like the old CB radio system, in that it uses 'channels'. Each channel is devoted to a specific subject, and anything you say will be broadcast to everyone else in the channel. In the same CB sense, you don't go by your real name in this virtual world - you use a nickname, or 'nick'. With the ircnet network - where almost all Atari users hang out - you're limited to using a 'nick' of 9 characters or less. Choose whatever you like, but keep it clean and inoffensive or you may not make many friends among the regulars. You may find that the IRC server tells you that a particular nickname is in use, though - with millions of people online, it can be hard to come up with something original. There's no point in getting upset if someone else er, nicks your nick - the usual practice when this happens is to add the underscore character after your usual choice, like 'nick_'. To begin with, the best place to hang out is the home of all Atari-owning IRC fiends - the #atari channel. Being a text system, IRC uses simple text commands to perform actions - see the 'BY YOUR COMMAND' boxout. To join #atari, it's simply a case of typing '/join #atari' and hitting return. As you enter the channel you'll see the topic (if one is set) and a list of whoever else is on channel. CHANNEL OPERATORS As with any online environment, IRC suffers from a high percentage of idiots and offensive lunatics. With no form of regulation, most channels would soon become a free-for-all of insults and abuse. Like all other channels, #atari regulates itself thanks to the Channel Operators. Simply, these are regular users who've been around for a long time, and are online often enough to protect the channel from invasion. The Ops have the power to 'kick' offensive IRCers off the channel. If they persist in being offensive, the Ops can ban them, effectively preventing them from entering #atari at a later date. If all of this sounds a little like digital warfare, then don't be put off. In almost all cases, the Ops are very vigilant, and you're not likely to get hassled or offended. If you are, complain - the Ops are spotted in the list of people on channel as their nicknames are prefixed by the '@' character. I, ROBOT Normally, when everyone leaves a channel, it disappears, only to be recreated when someone enters again. The first person to enter is given Channel Operator status though - and anyone intent on being malicious could stop regular users from entering. To keep #atari open permanently, a 'bot' or channel robot is used. A bot is nothing more than a piece of software which sites online all day, keeping the channel active. Bots can do much more, though - they can watch the channel for certain types of idiot, and can enforce the list of banned users. On #atari there are currently two bots which work with each other and the Ops to keep #atari clean. So, if you see users called TB and s0meone behaving oddly, remember that they're bits of code and not people. WHAT GOES ON? Despite the channel name, #atari isn't all dry techie talk about computers - far from it, in fact. At any given time, subjects could range from installing Linux on a Falcon to what the current episode of Red Dwarf was like this week. Essentially, it's a common room for like-minded users to talk about almost everything. With users from as far afield as Sweden, Norway, German, Iceland, Poland, Finland, Australia, Canada and the USA, it's a melting pot of ideas - and it's also a place of good humour and fun most of the time. Take your time in getting to know who's who, and you'll fit right in. See you online! BOXOUT : FURTHER READING If you want to know a little more before you go online, drop into the Atari Computing website at http://www.tachyon.demon.co.uk/ac/ where you'll find an expanded version of this article, complete with hints and tips on setting both AtarIRC and FracIRC up for regular use. BOXOUT: Getting the Software The STiK Pages - everything you need to get online with STiK, including the IRC clients mentioned here - http://www.flinny.demon.co.uk/ Lonny Pursell's Atari Pages - home of the AtarIRC developer, and you can often find new versions here - http://www.bright.net/~atari/ FracIRC Homepage - The personal home for Tim Putnam's GEM client - http://www.roseivy.demon.co.uk/ Demon Internet Atari Directories - if you're still using NOS and you can't access the web, you can get all of the latest STiK stuff from this ftpsite - ftp.demon.co.uk in the directory /pub/atari/stik/ END BOXOUT : BY YOUR COMMAND All IRC commands are entered in text format, and are all prefixed with the '/' character. When your client sees input beginning with /, it tries to interpret it as a command. Both AtarIRC and FracIRC come with a comprehensive list of commands, but these ones should get you online: /join #channelname - joins the channel specified, or creates it if it doesn't exist. /part #channelname - leaves the channel specified, closing it if nobody else remains. /quit - makes you leave all channels, closes your connection to the IRC server and exits the client program. /who #channelname - Shows a list of who is currently on the specified channel. You can do this whether you're on the channel yourself or not. /whois nickname- Shows a little information about the specified user, who can be on any channel. /msg nickname text - Sends a private message which only the specified user can read, and not the whole channel. /me text - Sends a string of text to the current channel as if you were performing it. For example, typing '/me hits Flinny with a wet fish' would send the text 'MyNick hits Flinny with a wet fish'. *** GRABS START HERE *** *** AIRC1.GIF *** AtarIRC makes configuration easy with it's extensive use of GEM dialogs. *** AIRC2.GIF *** Although just as good on a mono screen, AtarIRC works very well with colour, making message identification much easier. *** IRCII.GIF *** With enough memory, you can run the whole MiNTNet setup including ircII under a multitasking AES. *** FRAC1.GIF *** FracIRC also runs in a clean GEM manner, both for configuration and operation. *** FRAC2.GIF *** Both GEM clients utilise colour in an intelligent manner, making a busy channel much easier to follow. *** SHIRT.GIF *** Users of #atari love it so much, this striking T-Shirt design was recently created!