Preface

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) has continued to grow in popularity since its inception way back in 1988. Millions of people all over the world now use IRC to chat with friends, discuss projects, and collaborate on research. With a simple, clearly defined protocol, IRC has become one of the most accessible chat environments, with clients written for a multitude of operating systems.

Users of alternative chat systems will find IRC pretty easy to pick up and may even be surprised to find that it is more powerful, allowing not just chat between pairs of users, but among groups of hundreds, even thousands. It is the scalable nature of IRC that has helped it to succeed and to make it the most mature chat system on this planet.

This book presents an opportunity to learn how IRC works and how to make best use of some of its features. IRC Hacks delves deep into the possibilities, featuring contributions from some of the most renowned IRC hackers. Many of the contributors collaborated on IRC, grouping together to form the channel #irchacks on the freenode IRC network (irc.freenode.net). We look forward to seeing you there and hearing how you've used this book.