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[irc.git] / software / ircd / www.irc.org / ftp / irc / clients / tcl-tk / zircon / zircon.README

Zircon Release 1.15
-----------------------

This is a release of Zircon, an X11 interface to Internet Relay Chat.
The software is written in tcl/tk and uses the tcl-dp TCP extensions
to provide network communications. Suggestions for improvements to
Zircon are welcome. I am particularly interested in making the
system useful for those users in groups where JIPS and other national
character sets are used.

Zircon has more features than you could possibly imagine and
implements nearly everything that the irc II clients support as well
as many other useful and interesting features. This reflects the power
of tcl/tk *not* the fact that I am a wonderful programmer (I am, but
that is a side issue :-)) tcl/tk is a wonderful system and you need it
on your machine *NOW*.

Please send all reports, comments and suggestions to: 

	zircon@catless.newcastle.ac.uk

You can usually find me on the channel #zircon along with other
helpful Zircon users (and ScottM is often there too 8-; ). N.B. the user
whose nick is zircon has nothing to do with this progam. You can
always get the latest release of Zircon from ZirconBot - send the
message !send current and it will be dcc'ed to you. !send beta will
often send the latest beta test release of the system. If you use the
registration feature of Zircon ZirconBot will inform you off new
releases when you sign on to IRC.

Mail
----
	zircon-request@newcastle.ac.uk

to be added to the Zircon users mailing list. Messages to the mailing
list should be sent to

	zircon@newcastle.ac.uk

Enjoy!

Lindsay
-------

REQUIREMENTS

The software has been developed using:

	tcl	Version 7.3
	tk	Version 3.6
	tcl-dp	Version 3.0

You must have the dpwish program rather than the usual wish for Zircon
to be runnable.

tcl/tk is available from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu in the directory
/pub/tcl. tcl-dp is available there also, but the latest version can
always be found on catless.ncl.ac.uk which is also the home of Zircon.

You can configure lots of stuff using X resources, thus it is possible
to make buttons and text associated with particular users and channels
appear in special colours and fonts. The system is much easier to use
than the usual UNIX interfaces to irc and a lot of people are using it
on a day to day basis. Zircon also supports a distributed drawing
board, but please do not use this when there are non-Zircon users
around as they get annoyed when they cant see the pictures.

For people who really cannot do without their ircII style commands a
subset of these are also supported both in an optional command line
and from Channel windows - see the MANUAL for details.

INSTALLATION

Make sure you have tcl and tk installed and have built tcl-dp.
Edit the zircon Makefile and configure the path to dpwish, the name of
the directory where zircon files are going to live, and where you want
the main program to go. Then type

	make install

Now create a file called rc in the zircon directory. This acts as a
system wide rc file for all zircon users. Minimally put in here the
name of the default irc server that you wish users to connect to, and
the default port if it is not 6667. Also useful would be the name of
you rnearest irc help service :

Server default -host x.y.z -port 9999
set helpService "help_XX"

The file DOTzirconrc shows you what you might want to put in your
.zirconrc file in your HOME directory, but any of that stuff can also
go in the rc file in the zircon library directory. The HOME rc file
overrides the system one.

You will also want to edit the file zircon.ad which can be found in
the zircon library directory. This contains application defaults for
X resources and is read by zircon on startup. 

HELP

Mail problems to zircon@catless.ncl.ac.uk. The zircon mailing list can
be joined by posting to zircon-request@newcastle.ac.uk and posted to
at zircon@newcastle.ac.uk You can usually find help in the #zircon
channel on IRC as well.

Possible Future Extensions
--------------------------

1) Automatic AWAY canceling when you type in a window.

2) Nice icons instead of boring old buttons and text - suggestions welcome.

3) Face icons for users. Probably using the faces mail icon database.

4) Sound

5) Support for extended Server features

Known Features
--------------

1) Zircon does not work with pre-2.8 servers.

2) There is no JIS support. In fact there are problems when you even
attempt to join a group with JIS characters in its name as tcl tries
to interpret the $ characters in them.... I have tried the JIPS
version of tcl but it didnt help.

3) Character escaping in the low level CTCP protocol is not done
everywhere, but it *is* done for SED encrypted messages

4) You cannot configure anything other than Channels using the
configuration panel. If you wish to configure Message channels then
you have to do them by hand in the rc file. This restriction will be
lifted in the next release, along (I hope) with a completely redone
configuration system.

5) The Sketch Pad facility is not completely finished.